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23 votes! Please allocate them sensibly and don't vote for contradictory options.
Axem wants me to make a cool Google poll, MAYBE I WILL
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Does "the laughing man" refer to a certain someone next to the Yangtze?
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"contradictory options"... I both recognize why the Fedayeen has to exist but I don't really like it so I put both.
I said I read most of the material in the dreamscape, but I'm not sure on that point. I talked to everyone I could see before waking up (usually only once, since every time I pinged someone again I got one-liners), but there may be more I missed. I found the easter egg that changes the music (\m/, btw) but can I do anything with those two firewalls? And am I remembering it incorrectly, or do they move closer in subsequent visits to the dreamscape?
...I most play this again!
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The first time I launched 3.6.17 buid on my Ubuntu 12.10 laptop, it crashed after creating a new pilot and proceeding to mainhall. And it crashed again, til I created a new .fs2_open folder in my home directory. Now it's ok, but I cannot reproduce this bug... so I can't get logs anymore.
Some word about the wingmen : they were interesting, but not as interesting as the ones in WiH Part 1. I guess losing the war together creates more links between people than winning it together.
Maybe it's the writing : In WiH Part 1, what made the parts between the missions feel real was the messages from the crew and wingmen, but also the strategic briefing telling us *where* our capship was standing in the war : which fleet, who was in charge.
I really liked the general dreamscape parts, and the impression of being both in and out the war at the same time (fighting the same war a different way), but sometimes I was almost forgetting I was still on a UEF capship.
The Custos-X was fun to fly, but not as fun as the Katana in The Blade Itself. Less systems, less turrets, less eye candy. And a main gun... Who need to aim a maingun when the crew can do it for you ?
Placing tanks on platforms in Eyes in the Storm was fun, i really liked this part, the "tower defence" feel. But the reactivity of controls (arrows) felt a bit weird : sometimes snappy, sometimes slow, a bit unpredicatble. Maybe some side effect of the auto-zooming on platforms, this feature just interferes with precise aiming. Plus you cannot really miss a shot, feels too easy.
The only tricky part in this mission was not engaging the Pegasus fighters : I got slaughtered by their primary guns frenzy 3 times before understanding I should keep close to the transport and go away with it. Maybe I'm not a good pilot enough.
Oh, and I always loose at least 30 fighters in Her Finest Hour, even after following instructions in the "recommendations" tab. The mission always goes smoothly, but i keep getting these pilots killed not. I don't understand. I'll have to replay till I find what's wrong.
No need to say it again, the best campaign I have ever played, along with WiH part 1. Best writing, best freding !
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Why is there no option for poor, dumb Sergey as favourite character?
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Kovacs was my favorite Wingman. Obviously a bit mental, but not a cliche butcher or berserker. Just a broken down realistic in a crappy war. Seemed to have Laporte's back which counts for something.
With the recent revelations about the Vishnans, I'm inclined to support the GTVA even more. The war has been horrible, costly, but no more so than any other great ideological war in human history. Now we have both the Vishnans and Shivans passing arbitrary judgement on yet another cycle.
At least the GTVA is properly horrified by the idea of the human race being "shaped" into something by sufficiently advanced beings. Given that the Fedayeen are the self described scum of humanity, there's really no high ground the UEF can cling to anymore. They're as willing to burn 100,000 civilians to accomplish their goals as the GTVA are, which makes Laporte's angst about how the GTVA's citizens are "sheep" compared to Unbutu exceptionally, spectacularly, wrong.
Whether humanity lives or dies at the hands of the Shivans or Vishnans, they should face it on their own terms. The Vishnans aren't angels, and the Shivans certainly still are devils. Flip em the bird and go down guns blazing if it comes to it. But I'm willing to bet there's still someway to exploit their goals/desires.
And since ant analogies have flown fast and thick in this series, remember, even an ant has a bite. And it can kill, if they work together.
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Ah, but to the Shivans a human is apparently as unto a protein chain. I suppose even a single prion can kill you, though.
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I had no technical issues running Act 3 7 (3.5%)
Ran perfectly (only exception some slight stuttering on the opening cutscene, especially the first flythrough shot with the Solaris and Sanctus).
Sanatized the Gefs after some shock and thinking about it; decided in the end i didn't have a choice, their survival would comprimise the mission (welcome to 'black ops' :sigh:). Same for the Ridwan pilots (i assume these were the UEF that turn up in that mission?); i ended up engaging only after my pilots said they would do it though; dunno that seemed to snap me out of thinking.
Got Assassination on third try; i did summon the decoy bomb but i didn't give it time to turn up i don't think. Sensor decoy was handy!
I captured the Gef habitat in 'One Future'. Ironically my first run i did go for the reactor as i thought i didn't have the time to capture the station, but i aborted the mission when i read that hitting the reactor would destroy the whole thing instead of just stopping it. Sickeningly two faced as it might sound, i wouldn't kill thousands like that (despite the pilots earlier) if there was another option.
I loved flying the Custos-X :cool:
I was overwhelmed by 'Her Finest Hour'. It was okay mission-wise (i took notes i confess) but i paniced a little from the time limit and in the end threw all my bombers at the Carthage's engines after frying the Mjolnirs and uploading the station virus. Mission accomplished but according to my comm menu's emptiness urr... casulty rate nigh-on 100% ( debrief mentioned 40%> so at least that :( ). Took Surrender as it ended the fight quickly. (Btw, the Toutatis turns up?)
I had no trouble with the turret placement in 'Eyes in the Storm'. That was fun!
I wasn't bothered by 'Universal Truth'... much... (loved all the information in it though, and did love the fear from the "don't turn round" bit. I did see a few tendrils of whatever was following me but never did turn; i think it did genuinely scare me a bit :o. I escaped 'Universal Truth' with my mind intact (secondary was achieved, though according to the little box in the middle i had become unstable, so not 100% on that).
I recognize the necessity of the Fedayeen, but they make be uncomfortable big time. Sorta accepted them until i found out one of my pilots was a Serial killer (they seemed so caring too :sad:); that's downright dangerous, what if they start killing squadmates? Or make the gestalt leader thing go serial?
I have supported the UEF, and still do (definately understand the GTVA and it's believers more now though; they're good guys after all i guess); it's a fabricated lie, but one i honestly think is a good model for humanity, so with it till the end! The Vishnans have given up and condemned it... but maybe it's time for the child to fly the roost? :cool:
Humanity has a chance! Ken Seems to think so, and from what he said of his origins he would certainly have the brainpower to think it over. No idea how they're gonna pull it off... but if we did the last two acts would be boring right? :lol:
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Ah, but to the Shivans a human is apparently as unto a protein chain. I suppose even a single prion can kill you, though.
I'm not expecting a trench run against Shivantown in so many words, but everything has a weakness. Everything. War is the continuation of politics by physical means. If somehow military force can be used to leverage... something that the Shivans want or have a higher priority towards, that could be a path to survival.
I think some sort of victory is possible that combines some sort of surgical strike with a very, very intense investigation into what the Shivans really want, and set about denying them that. I don't believe like Bosch that coexistence with the Shivans is possible. Let's not forget, they've exterminated countless civilizations because they failed to meet some arbitrary standard of enlightenment. Who's to say they even understand the concept of honoring a deal with bacteria? They are impossible to attack directly, I wouldn't want them to be depicted as otherwise. But there's got to be something, a crack in their grand design, that can be exploited.
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Annnd voted.
And I have to agree with a lot of what manwiththemachinegun is saying.
I'm hoping the next two acts won't result in the death/defeat of Steele, but I guess there isn't too much hope for that.
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Annnd voted.
And I have to agree with a lot of what manwiththemachinegun is saying.
I'm hoping the next two acts won't result in the death/defeat of Steele, but I guess there isn't too much hope for that.
The same, I've been following the list down to see how far I can go, the question is at what point I'll flake out. Lopez was an easy choice to make - although the discovery that I could've gotten the Toutatis Serkr'd in the process is mildly horrifying now that I think about it.
Funnily enough the Fedayeen didn't draw any form of discomfort from me, they just reminded me of Special Circumstances, and as per the case of SC it felt rather awesome in the sense of what a few people could actually achieve not necessarily via their direct intervention in the action, but knowing just how and where to use the assets at their disposal. Her Finest Hour felt rather like a 'Buntu Delenda Est in that sense, you could almost imagine a wing of SOC Pegasi sitting back then and waiting for the time to call in the Aurora.
Of course we all know that wasn't the case, but I found the most discomfort to be derived from the discovery how just how subverted the UEF was by the Vishnans. Where Acts 1-2 felt as though they were drawing upon the horror of war with an undertone of crazy-Porte, here we're seeing a Contact'd situation gone horribly wrong akin to the Chelgrians, not because of negligance, but full on abandonment.
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They're SC meets the Envoy Corps from Richard Morgan's Takeshi-verse
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I had some technical issues running Act 3
At first "Universal Truth" failed to load (Malloc Failed). Probably because I have those high-poly Sathanas, but after I switched off web browser and restart FS everything works fine.
I read most of the material in the dreamscape
I sanitized the Gefs in 'Nothing is True'
Mercy for terrorist? Not any more...
I believed the Ridwan pilots had to die
Wrong place, wrong time...
Those wingmen were not my favorite people
Can't explain why. I just don't like them too much.
I had no trouble pulling off the assassination
Not counting the fact, that at first I forgot about traffic noise :P
I used the decoy transport during the assassination
Decoy, Gattler & Grimler and outrun the escort without a scratch
I captured the Gef habitat in 'One Future'
*Sigh* Gef or not, I can't kill all those civilians. At least not when I have other options.
Crap, I checked wrong answer, and now I can't undo it.
'One Future' didn't change my earlier decision about the Gef pilots
Let me guess. Thanks to earlier sanitizing, this mission is easier? :p
I loved flying the Custos-X
Maybe it's not Karuna, but still great.
I was overwhelmed by 'Her Finest Hour'
How many pages on briefing? How many options?!
"Are you getting all this?" No!
"You may want to take notes" Very funny :doubt:
I needed few try to adapt. And I thought "Delenda est" was difficult... :D
I took the Carthage's surrender
Destroy Carthage? It's enough, that I have to fight on the wrong side...
I summoned the Toutatis in 'Her Finest Hour'
Yeah. My leadership skills were... questionable. Most of the Toutatis air wing was destroyed and only one frigate survive (barely). Destroyer was my only option.
I had no trouble with the turret placement in 'Eyes in the Storm'
FS Tower defence :D Nice idea.
'Universal Truth' really freaked me out
I don't even know, how to describe this. All those information about Shivans, Vishnans and their plot...
I escaped 'Universal Truth' with my mind intact
I recognize the necessity of the Fedayeen
Someone have to do the dirty work.
I have supported the GTVA, and still do
Now even more than before. I always thought that Alliance, with all its weaknesses and flaws, is more real... more human. Peace and wealth of Federation are like humanity dream. Beautifull dream, but only dream. And now, after Act III, i can see Elders only as a dolls. Toys. And it looks like the Vishnans don't want to play any more.
Humanity is doomed!
Maybe not literally, but i can't see how we could survive without submission to Vishnans or Shivans...
PS
Laughing man?
PPS
Toutatis can be destroyed by Serk? How? ;7
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Had no technical issues whatsoever.
Read everything I could in the dreamscape. Was an excellent way of getting info about the greater scheme of things.
I sanitised the Gef pilots. Didn't even have second thoughts about it. Of course, they didn't endear themselves to me when they failed to kill the AWACS like they were supposed to. The Ridwan pilots had to die for mission success. It's black ops, and not supposed to be clean.
Kovacs was most interesting. Probably the nearest thing to a normal person out of all three, yet had a very detached way of looking at things. Didn't like any of them as much as our act 2 wingmates though.
The assassination wasn't too hard. I covered all my bases on the second attempt: identified transport, got up behind it, triggered flashbang, triggered transport, dumbfired a Shrike into the engine, and unloaded my Sidhes into it. Happily cruised away without getting hit. And that's how I killed an old lady and got away with it.
Blew up the Gef reactor in One Future. I didn't know about the Morena's weakpoint, so I sailed past it into the asteroid, killed the reactor, then got out and killed the Morena the old fashioned way. Given the info I had at the time, it was necessary. The Custos-X was a joy to fly, and provided an interesting possibility for the future of the cruiser class.
Her Finest Hour was an amazing mission. It overwhelmed me at first, but I think I adapted decently. "You may want to take notes", I did. The reason it took me so many attempts (~10) was because I insisted on playing on Insane and the station's TerPulse kept on killing me. And the Carthage's engines were a ***** to take down, but ultimately, calling everything in the menu and sending it all out at once did the job quite nicely. Got knocked down to 2% health by collisions with my Great Mighty Fighter Blob.
As a Tev supporter, I was happy I wasn't compelled to kill the Carthage, but I doubt she'll ever fight again, even if the GTVA win the war.
It says a lot about this mission that I failed it so much yet still think it's as good as it is.
Eyes in the Storm/BP Tower Defense was very fun. Went better when I chose to give all my wingmen Uriels and took a Kent myself. I find the Ainsarii is too big to mix it up with Nyxes. Turret placement was fine.
Universal Truth was ****ing terrifying. Not many games get psychological horror right, but this mission definitely did. The first part, running from the Great Darkness, was where this was at its worst/best. I failed the mission once (ran the wrong way after going through the first node, because I approached that node from the back), did fine the second time through.
Revelations were handled perfectly. This is how you do abusive precursors right. Mass Effect would have benefited hugely from your input.
I don't know if I'd call the Fedayeen necessary (the Tevs get along fine with traditional SOC black ops), but I completely understand their utility. They do make me uncomfortable, but that's to be expected.
I supported the GTVA before, and this act made me certain I chose correctly. Humanity's right to self-determination is worth dying for. Let's pull a Sheridan and get both these assholes to leave us alone!
I'm really, really hoping we get to see Fedayeen/3JRF/GTVA cooperation. Their interests match up well enough for it to happen, I think. If you kill off Steele, please at least give him a dignified soldier's death. Same goes for Calder.
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I had no technical issues running Act 3
I read most of the material in the dreamscape
Read pretty much everything I could find in the dreamscape, including spamming the fire button to see the different one-off lines.
I released the Gefs in 'Nothing is True'
I had a hard time with this decision, but killing them in cold blood after they held up their end of the bargain didn't sit well with me.
I believed the Ridwan pilots had to die
Wasn't aware that letting them go was an option. I opted to finish the job myself because I felt it was my burden to bear.
Those wingmen were not my favorite people
I liked the wingmen in Tenebra, but I didn't feel as close to them as the Wargods. I'd say it's because the Wargods had the whole camaraderie scenario stretched over 2 acts and more personal interaction (Mars vacation, friendly banter, etc). In short, the Fedayeen were my wingmen, but the Wargods were also my friends, which tracks right into the whole "squadron of sharks" line.
I had no trouble pulling off the assassination
Except for the times I killed myself with my own Shrikes....
I captured the Gef habitat in 'One Future'
Actually blew it up the first time, after I got the transport killed, and felt so bad during the debriefing that I replayed it to save the habitat.
'One Future' made me regret my earlier decision about the Gef pilots
Not sure what happens if you blow them up, but letting them go and seeing how they encouraged a 'no surrender, no retreat' idea did make me regret letting the Gefs live.
I loved flying the Custos-X
So. Much. Fun. I especially loved the feeling of flying the cruiser into the asteroid, destroying it's jump drive, and bugging out at top speed.
I adapted well to 'Her Finest Hour'
Did my first run on easy so I don't know how it really stacks up, I didn't even have to summon the Toutatis, and I beat it on my first try saving the frigate and most of my wingmen.
I took the Carthage's surrender
I liked the Lopez character, even if she did help destroy the Wargods she wouldn't of fallen into your trap if she didn't care deeply about her subordinates lives. A big tactical mistake, but I respected her humanity and felt nothing would be served by her death. Though the 10,000 prisoners line did make me go "Oh...didn't think about that part".
I had no trouble with the turret placement in 'Eyes in the Storm'
Navigational controls for selecting platforms were a bit sticky for my tastes but it was simple enough that I had no major issues.
'Universal Truth' really freaked me out
The thing coming up behind you in the darkness really freaked me out, maybe I'll have the courage to turn around next time I go through it.
I escaped 'Universal Truth' with my mind intact
Wasn't aware there was another way to complete the mission... Unless turning around at the above moment, or letting the Vishnans catch you is what you're talking about when you say "face of madness"... I'm going to have to play through that again.
I recognize the necessity of the Fedayeen / I'm uncomfortable with the Fedayeen
I feel both these things, and all I can really say is good job writing a faction that is gray enough that I can't really sort out my feelings on them.
I have supported the UEF, and still do
Despite the revelations of Act 3, I still felt that the UEF's ideals are admirable, though I don't appreciate the fact it was forced on us. To be specific, I no longer trust the UEF government or their overseers, but I do still value some of their ideals and when push comes to shove I'm still more partial to the UEF over the GTVA.
Humanity has a chance!
This is more hope than anything else. Either way, there's going to much more blood before this conflict is resolved.
In short, you guys did an amazing job. I was a bit worried going into it just because I liked WiH R1 so much that I didn't want to be disappointed if this didn't live up to my hopes. 30 seconds into 'Icarus' I was no longer worried, and you guys kept your A game going for the entire campaign. Whether it's mission or story structure you guys nailed it dead on, and you released it on the week of my birthday so thanks for the great gift. :D
Edit: Just rewatched Icarus and noticed the Masyaf frigate # is 1337. Cute.
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Well ****.
Ran like a charm on both system's I've played it on.
Read everything in the dreamscape the first time I played, but I think I need to make up a script for this act to even begin to wrap my head around all of it.
Sanitized the **** out of those stupid space hippies. :p
Didn't realize I had any sort of option to let the Ridwan pilots survive, but, I didn't look for one either since I was too busy smashing them up with my space shotgun.
Wingmen wingmen wingmen... I went with Falconer, but then I was like no! Vidaura, then I was all no no Kovacs. Wut about Thorne?
Assassination... neither? Wasn't simple, but except for scanning the sensor system there wasn't anything I'd call horrible either. I used the transport, the sensor thingamajig and the mjolnir, though I didn't think to use it on the transport my first time. Steele got to be one awacs short :p
Captured the gef asteroid base the first time. Accidentally crashed into the core my second time blowing it up. :lol:
It didn't change my decision about earlier. Assholes probably would have been shooting at me anyway.
Liked the Custos-X. Maybe not loved it, since I had to go rebind all of my keys just to fly it properly. But it was a lot of fun so I'll say I loved it.
I guess I adapted well to Her Finest Hour. But I got most of my strike force slaughtered by those hideous pulse turrets the first time (I didn't know the wings jumped in on your position, so I pulled well back before calling anyone in) I didn't even know the Toutatis could be called in, or that Serkr came knocking until I read it here. Saved the Serenity too. ** Though for whatever reason I was like super-certain that the Serenity would feature in the inside-Jupiter mission before playing Act 3. No idea why.
Accepted Lopez's surrender the first time through. Though I did play the space-shotgun the escape pods like a good like psychopath. :D Wait no, that's not something to smile about. ****.
Didn't have trouble with Eye of the Storm at all, unless the time spent trying to figure out why ctrl wouldn't work for placing turrets counts (I rebound the key)
Universal Truth freaked me the **** out and cost a keyboard to the spilled milk god. Didn't find the laughing man or probably 90% of the stuff in it but I guess that I escaped with my mind intact. I got the Sync/Transcend failure debrief and the 'I'm so cold ever since I peeled off my skin' one too when I got caught trying to talk to Simms.
I accept the necessity of the Fedayeen. Hell, I even kind of like them.
Didn't pick anything for who I support. Needs to be an 'I wubbed the UEFs but now I don't know, but still **** you Steele' option :p.
I guess humanity has a chance? Maybe? Again I feel like I need to read this Act again to be sure what I think.
*edit* surprised a Cassie question isn't on the list, but I felt stupid when I was told what Cassandra was. Yeah, obviously. Sure. :(
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I had some technical issues running Act 3
I somehow crashed the game during the tower defense thing... I think I either failed the mission or died, and toggled the view, and it crashed. Also the arrow keys were incredibly unresponsive. I tried plugging in a USB numpad mid-mission but the drivers didn't install properly. Dunno if it would've helped.
Also on my second attempt at Universal Truth, in the nebula part with the comm nodes, I was unable to link with any of them.
I read most of the material in the dreamscape
Although I only discovered after a few missions that the one-line things they say after you dialog with them are randomized!
I released the Gefs in 'Nothing is True'
I thought I was giving them the jump coords for the Masyaf, not setting them free :blah: But then I failed the mission. But I stuck with that decision anyway.
Ridwan pilots: none of the above.
I thought they had to die, but I thought that because I thought that was the only way to proceed within the game. If I had seen a way to not kill them and not compromise the op I would've taken it.
Wingmen: none of the above
I didn't dislike them, but I didn't have a favorite either. Even though I talked to all of them every time I entered the dreamscape, the different personalities didn't really stick.
I had a horrible time on the assassination AND I hacked a Mjolnir during the assassination.
When I figured out I could hack the Mjolnir I just went with that. But the first several times when I tried to blow it up myself I got owned. One time I was doing very well but I accidentally tapped my touchpad in a way it interpreted as a click, and fubar'd the mission that way.
Not sure what "NO ITEMS" is supposed to mean? Debrief congratulated me on not taking any hits, though!
I destroyed the Gef reactor in 'One Future'
I wanted to stick with the capture but when I found out about the jumpgate and reactor I thought I was being railroaded, so I blew it up.
'One Future' didn't change my earlier decision about the Gef pilots
One, when I first made the decision I thought I was sending them back to the Masyaf. And two, even knowing I had sent them back home, that mission didn't seem too hard.
I was overwhelmed by 'Her Finest Hour'
I kept exploding. I didn't realize that marking targets was a toggle until several retries in. My wingmen kept getting neutered.
Eventually I came up with a strat where I had the frigates blow up the Radhanite, followed by the gas miners, and together with my wingmen I blew up the Mjolnirs and AWACS.
I took the Carthage's surrender
Took me a good 30 seconds to decide.
Placing turrets was tricky during 'Eyes in the Storm'
Worst camera controls ever. Maybe with numpad it wouldn't have sucked? Realizing the turrets wouldn't activate until I told them to, but the enemies would still attack them as soon as my side opened fire... well, I ended up activating all the turrets on the second wave, as the enemy was getting in range.
Also, those poor tank crews! :(
I wasn't bothered by 'Universal Truth'
Format-wise I wasn't that surprised, considering what 'Ken' from Act I was like. Not sure what to make of the intel. Why is Ken any more trustworthy than the Vishnans? ****, what if Sam can still track Noemi in the dreamscape even after she's been unplugged?
I met the face of madness in 'Universal Truth'
Didn't get to the jump nodes fast enough to escape from Sam's invisible friends. Had to retry. See technical difficulties above.
Fedayeen? Idk.
If I could be sure they were right, maybe... but this whole 'extinction' thing seems unfounded.
I have supported the UEF, and still do
Idunno. I like them more.
Humanity has a chance!
At least we'll still be around for BP3 :)
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I took the Cartage's surrender. I read the winner's debriefing, but the campaign decided that I failed, so the next time I f**ked her to hell
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I took the Cartage's surrender. I read the winner's debriefing, but the campaign decided that I failed, so the next time I f**ked her to hell
That sounds like a pretty serious bug! Can you tell me more?
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I took the Cartage's surrender. I read the winner's debriefing, but the campaign decided that I failed, so the next time I f**ked her to hell
That sounds like a pretty serious bug! Can you tell me more?
Sure.
I'll try to remember what did actually happen that time. I started by blowing AWACSes' dishes, then took out Auroras. Then scanned HQ's subsystems. In that order. With my wingmen covering me. Then, I'm not sure what went after what but I believe it went like this:
Tankers were dead and so were the two Mjolnirs. At this point I called the game start and i called in the reinforcements (not sure which ones, but as much as I could).
Maybe it is another bug, but except the HQ, i was not able to hack anything else.
Some blowing up happened, but don't exactly know how it looked like since I was occupied by some fighters and then I was trying to stay as far as possible from it.
They did disable the Carthage, but only 2 or 3 seconds before she jumped. Then I had to choose between accepting hers surrender or blowing her up. I decided to accept it. The rest played as it should. I got the #1 debriefing (I was so upset about it that I did actualy fire up the FRED and started for searching, but since it was 3AM i soon gave up). The recommendations said something about not dying (so obviously this was wrong as well) and I was unable to continue in the same way as if I failed the mission.
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I read most of the material in the dreamscape
At this release I decided to investigate the plot carefully, which I usually don't do. Good choice, since the plot was very developed here, so I decided to read all this crap. To be honest, I found only the dialogs with Thorn as interesting, so I skipped the last dreamscape mission. Also, dreamscape missions have a terrible soundtrack, so I disabled music for them. And discovered a bug, where when you change music to 1 in F2, go back to the mission and press any F1-4 and back to mission again, music will turn on itself, and you will have to change it to >1 in F2 and back to 1 again to turn the crap off. Forgot to turn it back on after 2nd or 3rd dreamscape and didn't turn it on until Her Finest Hour :lol: And realised music there wasn't too great either.
I released the Gefs in 'Nothing is True'
Because why not? My attitude is to make as many allies as possible. Ungrateful fuuuers can always be dealt with later :P
I don't think the Ridwan pilots had to die
Don't like killing my own ppl when I am actually losing a war.
Those wingmen were not my favorite people
Thorn was the best, for stated reason.
I had a horrible time on the assassination
Well, I read the briefing carefully, but not enought it appears. It may be one of these few missions I'll give a replay.
I used the decoy transport during the assassination
Several times. Last one obviously succeeded :lol:
I destroyed the Gef reactor in 'One Future'
Killed McDuff and cruisers, summoned transport when shooting a reactor, lost a transport and destroyed reactor. Someone survives in my Blue Planet? NO. Well, in fact, yes for most cases. But not when I wield the firepower on the field ;7
'One Future' didn't change my earlier decision about the Gef pilots
Umm, maybe not paying enough attention here because I don't know what are you talking about here, but since I haven't changed my mind, I guess no! But won't be giving a replay on this one.
I loved flying the Custos-X
Shooting the crap out of colossal metal bricks has a high level of fun indeed, despite feeling overpowered.
I was overwhelmed by 'Her Finest Hour'
Replayed it few times before developed some strategy. I guess its good. Ordered wingmen to shoot mjolnirs and radars, could kill auroras with them too[immortal wingmen FTW], took down transports with artillery, got artillery to finish off the fight, because tactical strike didn't seem to be effective. Whole mission[and act] didn't feel like winning a war like act 2 did. Something was wrong. Also, Solaris-class brick in my mission? HOW?
I took the Carthage's surrender
Because I'm a good person!
I had no trouble with the turret placement in 'Eyes in the Storm'
AND HAD FUN! I didn't get it on the first time, but succeeded the second one.
I wasn't bothered by 'Universal Truth'
Mission was kind of MEH, yeah, the plot was there, but who did you try to what exactly? It felt a little trash.
I'm uncomfortable with the Fedayeen
It's simply part of the plot I actually don't like. Well, it is a big part of the plot :/
I have supported the UEF, and still do
I like Steve's ships too much to support GTVA I guess.
Humanity is doomed!
I has it to be doomed! If it's not doomed in BP, I'll make my own mod where it finally is!
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I had some technical issues running Act 3
Noemi Ladrunk was seeing double in her HUD until I changed resolutions.
The Vikrant and Toreador stop accepting new targets a few minutes into "Her Finest Hour".
While playing Eyes in the Storm, I got messages about incoming torpedoes and stealth fighters, but they never showed up before I jumped. I also got two RTB directives and two largely-redundant debriefing stages.
I read most of the material in the dreamscape
Including button-mashing to get most of the one-liners. Never figured anything out with the jump gates, though.
I sanitized the Gefs in 'Nothing is True'
Stakes were too high to consider anything else.
I don't think the Ridwan pilots had to die
More accurately, I think al-Da'wa's conjecture on how the GTVA would interpret UEF fighter debris in the middle of their convoy wreckage was a little optimistic, and the GTVA's compliance was a little convenient. I would think letting them jump out would pose less of a threat to operational security than letting the GTVA find the debris and hoping that they come to the conclusion I want them to.
Vidaura was my favorite wingman
But not by much, and only because Laporte told me to think it. :p All the wingmen were well-executed, but I didn't connect to them the way I did to the Navajas and Wargods.
I had no trouble pulling off the assassination
I used the decoy transport during the assassination
First try. Disabled it with Shrikes and charged in with Gattlers blazing, then called in the decoy and pressed the magic button that makes physics work (and turns off the ship). :p
I captured the Gef habitat in 'One Future'
Only after blowing up my transport with my own turrets and restarting. :p
'One Future' didn't change my earlier decision about the Gef pilots
Nope. Glad they weren't there to give me any trouble.
I loved flying the Custos-X
Yep! The combination of pilot-triggered weaponry and script-controlled turrets worked really well.
I adapted well to 'Her Finest Hour'
I was intimidated by the briefing (which was true of every briefing in Tenebra :p), but it all worked out pretty easily in play.
I took the Carthage's surrender
I wanted to capture the Carthage's technology, and I like Lopez. Blowing the Carthage up would also have set a horrible model for the GTVA to follow with UEF forces after the GTVA won the war, which still looked pretty likely as of "Her Finest Hour".
I had no trouble with the turret placement in 'Eyes in the Storm'
Well, the interface was a little jerky, but no real problems.
I wasn't bothered by 'Universal Truth'
I have the unfortunate tendency to laugh whenever a game, book, movie, or whatever tries to scare me. This makes playing/reading/watching many of them kind of pointless. :p Fortunately, creeping out the player was strictly secondary to "Universal Truth"'s purpose.
I met the face of madness in 'Universal Truth'
The first time I played through, I ran away every time I saw a subspace point form in the stage with the AoA fleet, thinking more Vishnans were jumping in. :p This rather inevitably resulted in me going insane. :D
I recognize the necessity of the Fedayeen
None of the atrocities they committed in Tenebra (at least the way I played it) were really anything special in comparison to how war is typically fought. When your enemy has established that nuking civilian cities is cool, breaking a guarantee of safety for six ecoterrorists doesn't cost you the moral high ground.
I have supported the UEF, and still do
The GTVA's real reason for going to war is considerably more legitimate than any of the ones presented in previous installments of BP, but not enough to win me over to their cause.
Humanity has a chance!
lol dunno
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I had some technical issues running Act 3
Just one: a CTD when I blew up an Aries transport in "Eyes in the Storm" after it had docked with the platform.
I read most of the material in the dreamscape
Hell yes, I read the material! Why anyone would skip is beyond me.
I sanitized the Gefs in 'Nothing is True'
They knew too much. Simple as that. Personally, I would've flown the mission without involving them at all, but that choice wasn't available.
I believed the Ridwan pilots had to die
See above: they knew too much. Unfortunate, but that's Black Ops for you.
Those wingmen were not my favorite people
None of them really stood out to me. I think they were good characters, but I had trouble telling them apart. Maybe on subsequent playthroughs this will change (when I pay more attention to their dialogues).
I had no trouble pulling off the assassination
First try. Just be careful and have a plan and it's no problem.
I pulled that assassination off with NO ITEMS
MWAHAHAHA! :drevil:
Actually somehow managed to not take a hit on the way out too. I have no idea how that happened.
I captured the Gef habitat in 'One Future'
Seemed the thing to do. Kill of the radical leader and let the more rational minds among the populace have a chance to come to prominence.
'One Future' didn't change my earlier decision about the Gef pilots
Once again, they knew too much. The level of sympathy I had with them is irrelevant.
I loved flying the Custos-X
That was interesting.
I was overwhelmed by 'Her Finest Hour'
At first, yes. Took me a few trial-and-error runs to get the hang of it.
I adapted well to 'Her Finest Hour'
Once I stopped being an idiot and paid attention.
I took the Carthage's surrender
There are certain lines you do not cross. And Lopez isn't a bad person.
I summoned the Toutatis in 'Her Finest Hour'
MOAR NUKE SPAM!
Placing turrets was tricky during 'Eyes in the Storm'
Those top-down controls were clunky. Kudos on the programming to pull that off (seriously, that was impressive), but it's an interface I'd rather not see again.
I wasn't bothered by 'Universal Truth'
I've seen End of Evangelion, RahXephon, and played through Sync. It'll take more than that.
I met the face of madness in 'Universal Truth'
I escaped 'Universal Truth' with my mind intact
I'm not entire sure, actually. That's how mind screw-y that mission is.
I found the laughing man in 'Universal Truth'
Wait, seriously? As in, The Laughing Man? He's in there!?
I recognize the necessity of the Fedayeen
I'm uncomfortable with the Fedayeen
Not gonna lie, those guys are rather freaky. But an excellent organization to introduce into a story. I'm... split on whether or not they're necessary.
I support the UEF
I support the GTVA
I reject your binary options! There is always another choice.
Humanity has a chance!
The fact that we're so integral to the plans of the Shivans and Vishnans gives us power. Maybe we do not fully understand it yet, but that they're interested at all is power.
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I missed the fact that I had to click multiple things, so now my survey only has one answer.
Either way, I went through all the dialogue in the dream space, but my only suggestion would be to let us cycle through targets and fire to talk to them regardless of distance. It was kind of aggravating to have to fly to the more distant ones.
I frequently increased game speed to close the distance out of annoyance.
That being said the story elements there were awesome! Top notch.
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Is this for real?
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Is this for real?
what :confused:
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I mean act 3, I'm guna download it and find out if this is for realz.
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I mean act 3, I'm guna download it and find out if this is for realz.
Yes it is, why would you click on the thread titled 'BIG spoilers' though!
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I mean act 3, I'm guna download it and find out if this is for realz.
Yes it is, why would you click on the thread titled 'BIG spoilers' though!
because snape kills steele and we find out that the atreus is named after his sled
and then
rise.ogg
BLUE PLANET
WAR IN HEAVEN
aney.ogg
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Luckily, I didn't read anything before posting. :lol:
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I had some technical issues running Act 3
i had some crash when running the last mission, but I completed it.
I don't think the Ridwan pilots had to die
I released the Gefs in 'Nothing is True'
Because I am not one who like to pull back my promise
Those wingmen were not my favorite people
I still prefer Admiral Calder
I had no trouble pulling off the assassination
I finished it in just 2 restarts
I used the decoy transport during the assassination
Just a distraction for escaping
I captured the Gef habitat in 'One Future'
'One Future' didn't change my earlier decision about the Gef pilots
It's fine, I have a lot of fun with the Custos and at least I give those Gef pilots a honorable death in battle.
I had no trouble with the turret placement in 'Eyes in the Storm'
I loved flying the Custos-X
I adapted well to 'Her Finest Hour'
Took me a lot of tries, and another restart to get the best possible outcome, but I made it. I didn't call the Toutatis because those Narayanas are more than enough with the Carthage disabled.
I took the Carthage's surrender
As if there isn't too much blood already
'Universal Truth' really freaked me out
I almost went mad from the revelation
I met the face of madness in 'Universal Truth'
I recognize the necessity of the Fedayeen
They are all anti villains so I don't know which side to choose
Humanity has a chance
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I had no technical issues running Act 3
I released the Gefs in 'Nothing is True'
Next time, I'll take the kill them option and see what happens.
I don't think the Ridwan pilots had to die
Those wingmen were not my favorite people
Not exactly because of the wingmen being bad or unlikable, but because I did not really pay much attention to the wingmen and thus really did not have much idea of who they were, therefore I am unable to pick which one is my favorite.
I had a horrible time on the assassination
About six tries were needed to finish it, give or take a few.
I hacked a Mjolnir during the assassination
I captured the Gef habitat in 'One Future'
The first time, I failed because of the time limit. The second time, I took the debrief recommendation advice and succeeded.
I loved flying the Custos-X
I adapted well to 'Her Finest Hour'
I took the Carthage's surrender
Mercy run! Next playthrough, I will take all the you are a terrible person options.
Placing turrets was tricky during 'Eyes in the Storm'
The camera and controls were quite finnickety and gimmicky and I did not adapt well to it.
'Universal Truth' really freaked me out
To the point where I had to press escape more than five times and said guys more than I had to.
I escaped 'Universal Truth' with my mind intact
I'm uncomfortable with the Fedayeen
Humanity has a chance!
What can I say, Earth is a nice place. I live there. Would be a shame to have it go kaboom.
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Does "the laughing man" refer to a certain someone next to the Yangtze?
I don't see how it can unless I missed something in the hour long search to find him (my god will I feel stupid if he is there).
Incidentally, I've just realised there is an uncanny resemblance between Tachikomas and Shivans.
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You can get the Toutatis killed by Sekhr? HOW? I must do this.
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You can get the Toutatis killed by Sekhr? HOW? I must do this.
Serkr will gank the Toutatis if you have fewer than ten points left, have taken more than 19 casualties, and goofed up so badly that both Narayanas had to withdraw.
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You can get the Toutatis killed by Sekhr? HOW? I must do this.
Serkr will gank the Toutatis if you have fewer than ten points left, have taken more than 19 casualties, and goofed up so badly that both Narayanas had to withdraw.
Hit a pilot when they are down! Steele punishes mistakes.
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I had some technical issues running Act 3
At first, serious framerate issues in Icarus and in the first dreamscape, despite having reasonable hardware. Using the new experimental builds and turning off shadows helped immensely. Also, not sure if it was intended or a bug, but when running from Bei's Vishnan friends in Universal truth, the red nebula had some weird artifacts (no problems in the other nebulae in the mission).
I read most of the material in the dreamscape
I ended up flooding my chatlog looking for unique one liners after the main dialogue bits were over (it was worth it. You rolled a two!).
I released the Gefs in 'Nothing is True'
Although a terrible decision considering the nature of the operation, I was annoyed by the grating "we are scum who perform operations of ... extreme sensitivity and which morality is not a concern (but you don't care, since you are a monster)" approach that the Fedayeen had taken in the fiction and dialogue in R2 up to that point. I understood the Fedayeen's purpose, and it makes sense, but the transition from the (relatively) subtle implications of Laporte's instability in R1 to "YOU ARE A MONSTER" was jarring, and if anything, made the first part of my playthrough a bit unpleasant. I just picked this option to annoy my new superiors, and it appeared to have no real bearing on the outcome of the mission other than to judge how 'soft' you were.
I believed the Ridwan pilots had to die
Without a doubt. These pilots could not been allowed to escape and compromise the operations of the Fedayeen (and in turn, the war). To top it off, the potential disruption the debris could sow among the GTVA's intelligence was an opportunity too big to miss, even if it mean the sacrifice of three good UEF pilots.
Kovacs was my favorite wingman
Kovacs seemed to be the most human of Laporte's wingmen (as opposed to the sneering axe murderer and the collected killer). He really just seemed like a normal (if exceptionally skilled) pilot pulled from the Federation's ranks, but with an understanding of the stakes at hand while at the same time not being overly melodramatic.
I had no trouble pulling off the assassination
Failed my first two attempts mostly due to shrike stupidity, but the third time was the charm (and even got away with no hits!)
I used the decoy transport during the assassination
I used the sensor flashbang during the assassination
I captured the Gef habitat in 'One Future'
I think even the Fedayeen wouldn't be willing to kill that many non-coms if an alternative was available (which it was).
'One Future' didn't change my earlier decision about the Gef pilots
I don't really see how that mission could have went much differently. Maybe some of the Gef pilots would have surrendered? Either way the Federation ended up with a major nuisance removed, and the GTVA was left with one less major asset.
I loved flying the Custos-X
The purpose of the Custos-X and the whole mission surrounding it seemed a bit ridiculous: A 150 year old radical preacher in a PIRATE ECOTERRORIST SUPERDESTROYER (though I suppose if the Kostadin Cell could maintain a cometary colony with upwards of 100,000 inhabitants they could build a destroyer, although that still doesn't explain where they got the know-how to build Federation mil-spec mass drivers, torpedo launchers and PD turrets when the rest of their forces were using blob turrets and Great war era Fighters, not to mention the ability to fling a several kilometer long asteroid across the Solar system and into Earth) is jeopardizing the Fate of the World, and only you in your experimental ultra-ship can stop him (by destroying the core!). Regardless, these are nitpicks: The mission was brilliantly executed, and the Custos was a joy to fly.
I was overwhelmed by 'Her Finest Hour'
I'm not cut out to be a commander. Lots of options, lots of forces available, but equally many ways for those forces to get killed. It took me a while to realize that forces that reinforcements warped in next to me, but knowing that made the mission considerably easier (as I was able to angle myself towards the Carthage's engine subsystem, making the strike teams' jobs easier). However even after disabling all of the sentry guns, and having my wingmates destroy the Mjolnirs and Electronic warfare units, I ended up with something like 40 fightercraft losses.
I took the Carthage's surrender
There was no point to destroying the Carthage. Capturing it gave the Federation one hell of a bargaining chip: 10,000 GTVA Officers and personnel, and an Admiral. Besides, losing a ship is one thing for GTVA morale, but having it captured would have to be utterly humiliating, showing just how outclassed they had been. Also of note, the dialogue in the following dreamscape mission by one my wingmates (forgot which, pretty sure it wasn't Kovacs though) references me 'taking 10,000 lives' despite having accepted the Carthage's surrender.
Didn't know I could have gotten the Toutatis killed. I just left it alone, figuring the artillery frigates had the situation covered and the destroyer's firepower was best utilized elsewhere.
I had no trouble with the turret placement in 'Eyes in the Storm'
Of all the things I thought might be in R2, I was not expecting tower defense. Loved every bit of it!
'Universal Truth' really freaked me out
Run.
I escaped 'Universal Truth' with my mind intact
One way or another, I'm seeing this through to the end.
I recognize the necessity of the Fedayeen
Humanity has a chance!
I have faith in our favorite mustached monologuer turned Shivan Hyper-intelligence.
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The purpose of the Custos-X and the whole mission surrounding it seemed a bit ridiculous: A 150 year old radical preacher in a PIRATE ECOTERRORIST SUPERDESTROYER (though I suppose if the Kostadin Cell could maintain a cometary colony with upwards of 100,000 inhabitants they could build a destroyer, although that still doesn't explain where they got the know-how to build Federation mil-spec mass drivers, torpedo launchers and PD turrets when the rest of their forces were using blob turrets and Great war era Fighters, not to mention the ability to fling a several kilometer long asteroid across the Solar system and into Earth) is jeopardizing the Fate of the World, and only you in your experimental ultra-ship can stop him (by destroying the core!). Regardless, these are nitpicks: The mission was brilliantly executed, and the Custos was a joy to fly.
You can find answers to these questions!
The Custos-X is designed to project force in the 'littoral' environment at the edge of the system where larger warships can't effectively plot jumps.
The Morena MacDuff has an extensive tech entry explaining her development!
As explained, uh, somewhere, the Gefs received extensive handouts from Federation Intelligence early in the war in an attempt to lure them into support.
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They also spent decades raiding Federation convoys, without doubt including military logistics convoys. The mass drivers you see were probably raided and mounted on the warship, not designed by the Gefs. The Ouster torpedoes, IIRC, are Gef-make torpedoes made from raided Fed antimatter.
Also, the rest of the forces use blob turrets, what ? The GEC Ancanma (http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/GEC_Ancamna) has a mass driver and a ton of PDTs too. And Gef fighters ? They're all mounting UEF military-grade weaponry, usually Vulcans, but ranging as far as UX-Ax and Warhammers.
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They also spent decades raiding Federation convoys, without doubt including military logistics convoys. The mass drivers you see were probably raided and mounted on the warship, not designed by the Gefs. The Ouster torpedoes, IIRC, are Gef-make torpedoes made from raided Fed antimatter.
Also, the rest of the forces use blob turrets, what ? The GEC Ancanma (http://) has a mass driver and a ton of PDTs too. And Gef fighters ? They're all mounting UEF military-grade weaponry, usually Vulcans, but ranging as far as UX-Ax and Warhammers.
All good points, and I didn't notice the Ancammas had mass drivers (by the way, your link goes nowhere). According to the Ouster techroom entry, they have fusion instead of antimatter warheads (which makes even more sense).
Reading the techroom entries clears up most of my questions on the MacDuff and Gaian Effort, but playing the mission for the first time just felt a little contrived. I know it sounds like a poor excuse, but without the proper background the mission feels really out of place IMHO.
As explained, uh, somewhere, the Gefs received extensive handouts from Federation Intelligence early in the war in an attempt to lure them into support.
IIRC, it was mentioned in the dreamscape a few times and by the SOC team inspecting wreckage of the Bellwether convoy.
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I had some technical issues running Act 3
Music would lag a lot, also the assassination mission the signal strength thing was being finnicky (no signal from anything), but went away after a few restarts. IDK what happened there.
I read most of the material in the dreamscape
Didn't really care for a lot of the character interaction thing, but read it just in case there was something important. Like Kobrar, I liked what Thorn had to say though.
I sanitized the Gefs in 'Nothing is True'
Orders. 'twas afraid of fission mailing if I let them go.
I don't think the Ridwan pilots had to die
Pretty sure could have other options, but I had them killed anyway, because see above.
Kovacs was my favorite wingman
Out of the three I liked Kovacs. He was probably the most connectable. He's a bro. Though tbh the wingmen weren't super interesting, their presence (and plot armor) were welcome.
I had a horrible time on the assassination
See question 1 answer. Also I liked blowing myself up with shrikes.
I hacked a Mjolnir during the assassination
So I ended up doing this.
I destroyed the Gef reactor in 'One Future'
HIT THE WEAK SPOT FOR MASSIVE DAMAGE (x2!). How could I resist.
'One Future' didn't change my earlier decision about the Gef pilots
Well, I don't see any reason to show them any mercy if they're insane enough to colony drop a colony inhabited by their own people.
I loved flying the Custos-X
Capship command + can actually fire? Yay.
I adapted well to 'Her Finest Hour'
I got pretty much all the objectives! And called in all the reinforcements I could (pretty much)! And they all died!
I took the Carthage's surrender
it's got that cool dark orion texture. how could i kill it.
I summoned the Toutatis in 'Her Finest Hour'
The mission was dragging cause the Vikrant wasn't doing anything for a while, and everything else friendly (other than the plot-invul wingmen) were dead.
I had no trouble with the turret placement in 'Eyes in the Storm'
Was straightforward after I remembered to re-bind left-ctrl after unbinding it for the stealth mission.
I wasn't bothered by 'Universal Truth' (forgot to select this so +1 to that one D:)
Not all that minduckery (might be desensitized - also, FreeSpace origin of the shivans etc. have been discussed LOTS, wasn't going to be surprised by anything really that made sense), but it was a good infodump and had nice atmosphere.
It was also a very impressive piece of FREDding work. After the previous mission I expected to play another actual mission and not to watch a movie, but hey, it was pretty damn awesome.
I escaped 'Universal Truth' with my mind intact
Well, it said I achieved the "stay sane" objective despite my mental integrity being aijsip18090290ad. Which pretty much amounted to that choice at the end didn't it...
I'm uncomfortable with the Fedayeen
Well, they're kind of odd. And they're necessary to the story, but I'm not entirely convinced on their necessity for the UEF. Maybe for humanity?
I have supported the GTVA, and still do
The UEF just looks like a worse prospect because even the Vishnans have given up on them, apparently lol.
Humanity has a chance!
I too, have faith in our favorite mustached monologuer turned Shivan Hyper-intelligence.
All in all, great release - really liked how the gameplay was focused on as opposed to WiH p1/2 where the gameplay at some points almost felt like simply going through the motions so you could get at the story.
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Universal Truth isn't just a movie, it's quite possible to go nuts and fail (and not just at the end).
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I had some technical issues running Act 3
Crashed once at loading second mission and Icini didn't show up first time playing universal truth
I read most of the material in the dreamscape
I'm a sucker for a good story
I released the Gefs in 'Nothing is True'
Neomi is still a child of Ubuntu, she is not that far gone yet
I believed the Ridwan pilots had to die
The vods finding out the truth would have doomed the UEF
Those wingmen were not my favorite people
Didn't connect with them like i did with act 1/2 wingmen
I had no trouble pulling off the assassination
Found the traitor first time by accident as I didn't know what I was doing and just flew up to them once I had scanned the station.
I captured the Gef habitat in 'One Future'
See above with regards to other gef
'One Future' didn't change my earlier decision about the Gef pilots
can't make an omelet without breaking few eggs
I loved flying the Custos-X
why wouldn't I - its awesome
I adapted well to 'Her Finest Hour'
Told my wingmen to cover me and went in after their AWACs. Few hairy moments but got through it ok though some miners escaped.
I took the Carthage's surrender
I cant destroy another Orion - its my favorite cap ship
Placing turrets was tricky during 'Eyes in the Storm'
I spread them out to far to be effective
I escaped 'Universal Truth' with my mind intact
Just followed the instructions from ken
I recognize the necessity of the Fedayeen
All societies need their butchers - sometimes human nature is a twisted thing.
I have supported the UEF, and still do
I will always root for the underdog
Humanity has a chance!
BP3 would be crap otherwise
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Universal Truth isn't just a movie, it's quite possible to go nuts and fail (and not just at the end).
What's that? A personal reflection on behalf of the dev team? :)
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I don't get it
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I think he means the sheer freding of it must have been a nightmare in itself. :P
Someone please give me a clue for where the laughing man is! This thing really is driving me insane.
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I think he means the sheer freding of it must have been a nightmare in itself. :P
Someone please give me a clue for where the laughing man is! This thing really is driving me insane.
Reach Saturn in Universal Truth, choose to remain until psychological collapse, don't get shot down for a few minutes
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I enjoyed WiH2 a lot, but I was surprised it was over so soon. I was expecting a semi-climatic stalemate battle with Steele as a cliffhanger. Still, nice!!! Yay for Simms living (had half expected Simms to also be one of the 4 Fedayeen wingmen), but with dreamscape Noemi'd know. Also nice Lopez was given (optional) mercy.
I had some technical issues running Act 3.
I had to switch GLSL off, even though having recent hardware. Then it worked flawless, except for that when I shoot weapons with my ship, there's a little white ball launching with it. Can screenshot if necessary. Got a new PC soon, am sure that'll run the game fine.
I read most of the material in the dreamscape
Nowadays I play Freespace mods for their story, not much more. So I made sure to read what I can. I loved the idea of dreamscape, seeing the changing text under the ship names as silent hints to the person the ship represents.
I released the Gefs in 'Nothing is True'
I found the Gefs to be outside force that had no direct reason to fight other than blackmail. I released them, I prefer to get my hands dirty in this case myself and to take responsibility for my choices.
I believed the Ridwan pilots had to die
When they hop into the pilot seat, they accept the risk of dying. If I hadn't done it, a Tev pilot would have sooner or later if the mission had failed. Their death sooner or later was certain, now atleast it mattered.
Vidaura was my favorite wingman
She's well balanced, a killer and yet can put distance between what she does and what she thinks. She came to terms with what she did long ago. She can be manipulative if need be I'm sure.
I see a bit of a resemblance between the horsemen of the apocalypse and the 4 Fedayeen. Noemi as conquest, bringing war and ending war in favour of an advantage in the next war, but also conquering her own limitations and being the only one who can grow as a person of the 4. Kovacs as death for he seems to feel guilt and may be dead on the inside to me, now he brings death. Falconer as war as is a weapon which always was as she is now, Vidaura as famine as she starves you by reminding you of your sorrows and pains, until you feed on her sympathy, while she if she wants can get into your mind and drive you to do things.
I had no trouble pulling off the assassination
I remained careful, kept looking with the target options for nearby fighters and after a while figured out how to detect the signal. Died once, underestimating the Nyx escorts, then completed on the second run.
I hacked a Mjolnir during the assassination
I used the Mjolnir on the transport. I tried to access a second one to try and fire on the logistics vessel but the network got shut off. Would be nice if that'd be bonus points for setting back the Tev's if you're fast enough.
I captured the Gef habitat in 'One Future'
The Gef's are outsiders. Just because they're blind to events now does not mean they can't be inspired to reflect and see what is truly going on. Give them a chance to survive. Mercy inspires, when used with moderation, it gives hope and change.
'One Future' didn't change my earlier decision about the Gef pilots
I find my reasons were valid before and after this mission.
I loved flying the Custos-X
Fun little ship. But I'd have liked it even better if it was such a prototype that the ship would quit on you halfway through. Shields failing, weapons stalling, it would have made the battle more tense than a timer. Then making a choice, do I let the transport board me and repair my problems, spending not only precious time but also risking it is shot off my hull, or do I move on with the problems and try my best.
I adapted well to 'Her Finest Hour'
I played it a bit chaotic but kept control. Did replay a few times by my choosing to get a good tactic. Went for sending my wingmen after the tankers right away, the artillery after the corvette that flew with them, while I took the bombers and Herc2's out so the frigate could escape. Then I shot the radomes off the AWACs and let my wingmen deal with the Auroras. I then scanned the station subsystems while letting my wingmen deal with the minelayer, while the artillery took care of the bigger cruiser. I then told the artillery to deal with the Corvettes under the Carthage while my wingmen took the dishes off the Carthage and I took out the beam cannons (which seem to repair, like in WiH1, cool!). I then disabled the Carthage with my wingmen and called in reinforcements to bring her to 6% hull and told them to depart, worried they'd kill her.
The Toutatis never arrived, until I did a replay in the mission simulator. I handles the situation before Laporte spoke her request I guess. Even then I played too fast to encounter Serkr as I already had the Carthage down to 10% or so.
I took the Carthage's surrender
Lopez does her job, she has integrity and her way of waging war is not personal, it is duty. My war with her was not personal in return and I allowed her to surrender. People like Lopez may be a positive voice someday if the Tev's and UEF someday make peace. Like stitches which soothe old wounds and keep them from re-opening someday, inciting change. She's a people person, she might be needed the most.
Placing turrets was tricky during 'Eyes in the Storm'
I'd prefer if pressing left or right and up or down would instantly switch to the next platform instead of having to aim. I also forgot to activate them first round. :P I'd not have mind if my wingmen had told me to wake up when the turrets got hit too often and that they'd have activated them instead, giving me a rant in the debriefing. Second time it went well. Was surprised to see my SOC Nyx (ezecsoc) retexture featured, nice!
'Universal Truth' really freaked me out
I almost felt something crawling behind my own eyes a few minutes in and I got itchy all over being afraid I'd have one of those 'screamers' pop up in my screen. Eventually I looked at my desk and my eyes up at the bottom of the screen and radar so I could avert my eyes with the first next scare. I don't usually play with volume at 10% either and it's the only mission which even though being curious, I won't replay to see what happens if I fly away from the light. I wasn't that tense since Skyrim + Draugr scare. I won't continue and embarrass myself further, next question. :D :D :D
I escaped 'Universal Truth' with my mind intact
Unstable (I guess that's close-to-trouble), but not mad, so Noemi recovered. I got really scared that it'd flip to insane suddenly and that I'd get some picture more scary than an eye pop up as punishment! I did read all the node info, after a reluctant restart mid-mission to see if that'd be possible.
I recognize the necessity of the Fedayeen
I also recognize that someday mankind can reach enlightenment and that elements of doubt and mistrust will be a block that needs to relinquish itself for mankind to reach the next stage. Until then the Fedayeen are a necessity. I do not recognize Noemi Laporte as Fedayeen, because the Fedayeen have resigned to being monsters (although a necessity) and cannot properly reflect upon their actions in a manner to learn and grow from it. They are tools. But Noemi reflects on her actions and grows as a person, doing right and wrong to see all things as a more whole picture, to create a contrast.
You can't tell shades of light or dark unless you see both. How else can you tell a bright shade, and an even brighter shade from eachother? Noeme is having a learning experience. The people Noemi looks down on aren't ants, they are just tiny because Noemi has grown as a person and sees that they still see things from narrow perspectives. And the fact that she can spare people, the Gefs, Lopez, for me confirms she grew beyond petty vengeance and perpetual actions and reactions, she breaks that chain. The day that people grow like Noemi has, the Fedayeen will no longer be a necessity.
I have supported the UEF, and still do
Persistence inspires change, it makes people think you're right and they are wrong, because they don't get their way by crushing you and thus start to doubt themselves. But I see the UEF as a sum of Noemi's efforts now, or it will be eventually. I do not support the Elders, although I pity their desperation which drives them ironically into being not what they intent to be: by not embracing change and risk, they are as blind as their aggressors to alternatives. Running circles, not dynamic, like Noemi's ants.
Humanity has a chance!
Humanity can grow to great levels, but the universe is dynamic and perhaps someday their ways, even when reaching enlightenment are not what the universe needs, and they too will die. Only the Shivans are eternal. You could say that anything which is not eternal is already dead. Because as time proceeds, the lifespan of something which at one point started and eventually ended becomes smaller and smaller in contrast to the timespan between point 0 and what is in the future the now.
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Most of you took the Carthage's surrender?! Where's your sense of vengeance? Sweet, beautiful, ruthless, vengeance...
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There will be more vengeance obtained by studying captured combat evaluation prototype equipment and interrogating high-level prisoners than by simply destroying one ship.
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You get far more 'vengeance' by subverting everything that ship stood for than by simply destroying it. ;)
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Vengeance is hard, but forgiveness is much harder. But then, it is hard to have something that personal to just another rook on the chessboard rather that someone who said 'for me, it was tuesday'.
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There will be more vengeance obtained by studying captured combat evaluation prototype equipment and interrogating high-level prisoners than by simply destroying one ship.
That's the main motivation for a lot of people I think. If Laporte simply blasted the thing solely for her own vengeance I'd hope she would be court-martialled for destroying such a valuable asset.
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And if in case you missed it, there will be unique dialogue if you destroy each of the 3 corvettes, not in the debrief though.
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The fedayeen make me uncomfortable yeah: The ends justify the means goes against everything I stand for, and yet... It makes sense. They are playing with such stakes that they cannot afford the luxury of morality, that is their purpose, if things ever return to a state of humanity not on the edge of extinction then I'd imagine the fedayeen would get their due from humanity over their atrocities, but for now they are necessary. Vidaura is the only wingmate I payed attention to, and the revelation of her being a serial killer epitomises fedayeen so well, they are a bunch of phycopaths, killers and immensely successful pilots, and hence a potent weapon. I try to hang on to morality, I let a few gefs live, I accept a defeated woman's surrender. One thing for sure, the feds no longer hold the moral high ground, if they ever did. This feels less of a grey and gray morality story as a black and black one, I'm not rooting for the GTVA, but I respect them more in relation to our side.
The final scene reminds me a bit of doctor who: "But you have no backdoors left, no forces, no plan." "Yeah, and doesn't that scare you to death." I don't see humanity getting out of extinction, but I hope they do.
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One thing for sure, the feds no longer hold the moral high ground, if they ever did. This feels less of a grey and gray morality story as a black and black one, I'm not rooting for the GTVA, but I respect them more in relation to our side.
Who knows what the SOC is up to during the course of the war...Could be much worse than the Fedayeen.
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It wouldn't surprise me if SOC is leading teams into quarantained space, salvaging Shivan tech to make some disturbing technology.
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It wouldn't surprise me if SOC is leading teams into quarantained space, salvaging Shivan tech to make some disturbing technology.
After all, they've had much greater exposure to Shivan Tech than the UEF could ever dream of...
+ if the GTI discovered Nagari, who's to say SOC and the GTVI don't know about it? They could have a weaponised version of it for all we know. :shaking:
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That's actually a nice idea.
The GTVI recovered the ETAK schematics from the Iceni in FS2, so they have knowledge of an artificial means of Nagari communication. If MORPHEUS is about purging Vishnan influenced elements from society, a great way of doing that would be somehow subvert the means through which they interact with the Vishnans by turning it into some kind of weapon or intel gathering device.
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That's actually a nice idea.
The GTVI recovered the ETAK schematics from the Iceni in FS2, so they have knowledge of an artificial means of Nagari communication. If MORPHEUS is about purging Vishnan influenced elements from society, a great way of doing that would be somehow subvert the means through which they interact with the Vishnans by turning it into some kind of weapon or intel gathering device.
Byrne's sekret project might be a counter to exactly that.
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Are you seriously suggesting the GTI could wreck a system of communication developed by a species that is thousands of years old and perhaps dominating an entire galaxy without any opposition?
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It could be the Nagari equivalent of noise, like radio jamming. It's not the Vishnans' method of communicating humans that has to be stopped, merely the ability of humans to receive. Nagari isn't magic, it exists in the real world and so long as it does it can be blocked. As to how you 'block' quantum pulses well... :confused:
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Well indeed. Sometimes, I gather that it's somewhat like "quantum entanglement communication" from mass effect, in which direct, instantaneous and untraceable communication is made between two entangled atoms (its violation of locality is unrealistic but fun). However, if it's instantaneous it should not have "pulses" or "waves" or "fields" at all (the ani of the ETAK showing the NTF Iceni "pulsating" a "wave" of alledged quantum pulses does not describe the same mechanism as the QEM). Then again, if it is not instantaneous but rather travelling at the speed of light, then communication would be chaotically out of sync and outrageously lagged.
But yes I agree, the only way to "jam" a QEM would be precisely to tamper with the receiver ends, as you put it.
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Are you seriously suggesting the GTI could wreck a system of communication developed by a species that is thousands of years old and perhaps dominating an entire galaxy without any opposition?
"All systems can be subverted, your mind is no exception (...)" - Ken
Edit: Corrected quote for universal truth.
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Well it's already established that the Nagari phenomenon can be tested for, like in the mission Ken, so as an example if you could somehow detect Nagari levels on a large scale that could be used as a kind of screening device of who is safe from influence.
With the phrasing of how Ken described it in Universal Truth, this was the kind of impression I got of what MORPHEUS was about.
Furthermore, the Fedayeen were able to project Laporte into the Nagari network, and while not 'wrecking' it, she penetrated their network in a way that neither side seemed to expect or be happy about. This alone seems to indicate that the Nagari phenomenon can be subverted given the right circumstances.
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I had some technical issues running Act 3
I had to turn down the graphics to make the intro watchable. I had several CTDs; a couple, I think, in "Her Finest Hour": once when I called in all the reinforcements at the same time, if that may have had something to do with it. At the end of "Her Finest Hour," the game froze for a bit at very regular 3- or 5- second intervals.
I read most of the material in the dreamscape
... but flying around was tedius. So was spamming clicks to ensure that I read all the one-liners. :(
I sanitized the Gefs in 'Nothing is True'
If they got away, word could get out that we were there.
I believed the Ridwan pilots had to die
See above. Sorry, guys. :(
Those wingmen were not my favorite people
They all seemed to bleed together, and I honestly couldn't tell you which is which, except that Falconer didn't like Noemi at first. I liked... Thorn.
I had no trouble pulling off the assassination
I pulled that assassination off with NO ITEMS
The first time I got caught in the Shrike blast because I confused them with Paveways. Second try I blasted the transport and glided away.
I captured the Gef habitat in 'One Future'
I thought I read in the briefing that capture was preferrable to destruction, so I did that. Plus I really didn't want to have to fly inside if I didn't have to.
'One Future' didn't change my earlier decision about the Gef pilots
It wasn't anything personal... they just had to keep quiet.
I loved flying the Custos-X
It felt less responsive than the Karuna, but maybe that's just in proportion to its size. Sniping fighters with the railgun was fun. Gatler spam was pretty. Countermeasures were cool. I didn't use any of the turret targeting options.
I was overwhelmed by 'Her Finest Hour'
I adapted well to 'Her Finest Hour'
It took a while to wrap my head around all the objectives I could consider. Then a while longer to understand my capabilities, my wingmen's, and the artillery's; e.g., many times I raced for the bombers at full burn because I didn't trust C-3-5 to do the trick. The first try I went straight for the gas miners and lost the frigate because I didn't realize it was in danger, then died somewhere along the line. Eventually I noticed the gauge at the top, but I didn't really use it to determine my actions. On my successful attempt, I C-3-5'd the frigate, marked all gas miners, Mjolnirs, and minelayers for artillery (to work around the artillery bug), flew full burn to the AWACSes to Grimler, artillery took care of the gas miners, C-3-1'd the Mjolnirs (and maybe the minelayers; I don't remember if they were down yet), scanned the station and corvettes, ignored the Carthage's dishes, called in the assault, called in ALL reinforcements, destroyed both corvettes, then disabled the Carthage.
I took the Carthage's surrender
I always accept Orion frame donations. It might be useful somehow, or (if we survive) it could become a museum or something. I felt nothing either way for Admiral Lopez.
Placing turrets was tricky during 'Eyes in the Storm'
The zooming in and out when moving the reticule and the stickiness/latency of the controls made it hard to actually target the platforms. I wasn't sure of any great configuration, so I just dropped all the tanks roughly evenly, and activated them on the second wave.
'Universal Truth' really freaked me out
I was really worried about going insane. Good job on this one.
I escaped 'Universal Truth' with my mind intact
I... think? My sanity level was Rec4asjk0!1 or something, but I passed the mission I think.
I recognize the necessity of the Fedayeen
I'm uncomfortable with the Fedayeen
Having a soulless machine around that ensures the survival of humanity at any cost is pretty scary, but it seems to be the only chance now.
I have no idea whom I support
The one thing I'm sure of is that I'll destroy the Vishnans if at all possible, although it sort of seems like "destroy the Vishnans" isn't even a concept that makes sense. So anyway, as far as I know, I'll probably have to destroy the GTVA and/or kill all the elders.
Humanity has a chance!
I wouldn't see the point of the story if it didn't. :P
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Are you seriously suggesting the GTI could wreck a system of communication developed by a species that is thousands of years old and perhaps dominating an entire galaxy without any opposition?
"All systems can be subverted, your mind is no exception (...)" - Ken
Edit: Corrected quote for universal truth.
Hope is the quintessential... oh wait wrong fiction.
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Are you seriously suggesting the GTI could wreck a system of communication developed by a species that is thousands of years old and perhaps dominating an entire galaxy without any opposition?
Easily...
I'll give two examples:
1. Teamspeak - Anyone can get on an open channel and crank in noise. Open new accounts even after getting banned and continue harrassing forcing people to regroup/set up additional security instead of playing the game.
2. The private trading system used by stock brokers in America has NO/ZERO/NONE/NADA protection against *inside* attacks. It's secure from the outside but any trader could seriously do some damage if they had a bad day and decided they were done with that lifestyle.
You can't have a network as 'open' as Nagari and secure at the same time. If you are going to go so far as to share thoughts and let people into your own mind there is no way you can filter what goes out/what comes in until AFTER the fact.
(Obvious reference to that-website-you-wish-you-hadn't-opened-but-did-and-now-you-need-eye-bleach withheld for obvious reasons...)
I think Laporte is going to Rick Roll the entire Vishnan/Shivan armada into submission...
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The thing is though, Both the shivans and vishnans are vastly more powerful in the Nagari realm. So far, humans do not seem capable of initiating Nagari contact without technical aids; and even then, only very few individuals can actually go through that process. Trying to jam Nagari with those assets would be like trying to disturb an AC/DC concert using the speaker of a mobile phone.
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See? I knew if I blabbed long enough someone would reveal some useful information about Nagari... = :P :yes:
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Everything I said is mentioned or can be inferred by looking at the relevant data in the campaign.
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I think Laporte is going to Rick Roll the entire Vishnan/Shivan armada into submission...
Yeah I mean what could a Kardashev type 3 civilization cartel possibly do against a human being.
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Completely random, but after Universal Truth, having implants put in her brain and a slurry of drugs pumped through her cranial chambers, wouldn't Noemi Laporte's head look like a bald-shaved patchwork of surgical scars for a good while? :nod:
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Olivia Dunham disagrees.
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I had no technical issues running Act 3
Besides switchable graphics *****ing and using the nvidia card for everything but the normal bp2 executable...
I read most of the material in the dreamscape
Everything I could get out of it!
I released the Gefs in 'Nothing is True'
The Gefs did their risky job and most of them died anyway. The surviving pilots deserved it.
I believed the Ridwan pilots had to die
They are in the military and they ended up at the wrong place.
Those wingmen were not my favorite people
I couldn't decide which one is my favorite cause they didn't get enough screentime...
I had no trouble pulling off the assassination
I hacked a Mjolnir during the assassination
Took me one try to figure out how to detect the right transport and the first attempt to destroy it failed because: "How do I fire this stupid Mjolnir thing???"
I captured the Gef habitat in 'One Future'
'One Future' didn't change my earlier decision about the Gef pilots
There is absolutely no need for them to die after letting the Gef pilots survive. Those fanatic guys defending the asteroid on the other hand deserved their death.
I loved flying the Custos-X
Liked it more than flying the Karuna. I had to remap several keys and use mouse controls cause I usually play with keyboard only and my mapping made it impossible to fly the Custos but otherwise it was real fun.
I was overwhelmed by 'Her Finest Hour'
Took me way too many tries to figure out what to do and how to do it and when. Then no one told me the reinforcements will arrive at my position which accounts for another failure. After realizing that my wingmen have "plot armor" things got a lot easier though.
I took the Carthage's surrender
I have a lot of respect for Lopez. She placed her subordinates above her orders which may be a huge tactical mistake but still - won't let a person with such a character die. It's not her fault that the wargods ended up in that trap. Steele on the other hand has to pay at some point!
Placing turrets was tricky during 'Eyes in the Storm'
I can't think of any better way doing this using sexps but as a person who played a lot of tower defenses the controls were not what I expected.
I met the face of madness in 'Universal Truth'
1. Don't turn around? Let's turn and see what happens...
2. Which of the nodes is the exit? Oh my mental health is "perfectly fine" - does this mean I can fly around a bit more?
I escaped 'Universal Truth' with my mind intact
I still have to kick some asses. Need a functional brain to do this.
I recognize the necessity of the Fedayeen
Cool missions, powerful and state of the art weapons, undercover ops, ... They are necessary.
Additionally someone has to do all the dirty jobs.
I changed sides from UEF to GTVA
Seriously, who wants to fly for a government that is manipulated by aliens that ordered some other aliens to kill us?
Humanity has a chance!
Otherwise we don't get anymore BP Acts at some point.
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I didn't even know that you could bring in the Toutatis in Her Finest Hour
Also now that I think about it, I did have one technical issue with Her Finest Hour. Might be my computer since the same thing happens when I play Fallout: New Vegas. If I play F:NV for an extended period, it stutters every second like clockwork. The same thing happened in Her Finest Hour when I called in the attack. The problem doesn't show up in any other mission so I dunno... :confused:
Also I replayed Act 3 and let the Gef pilots live, only to regret it later as they made things quite a pain on hard mode :P
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I didn't even know that you could bring in the Toutatis in Her Finest Hour
Also now that I think about it, I did have one technical issue with Her Finest Hour. Might be my computer since the same thing happens when I play Fallout: New Vegas. If I play F:NV for an extended period, it stutters every second like clockwork. The same thing happened in Her Finest Hour when I called in the attack. The problem doesn't show up in any other mission so I dunno... :confused:
Also I replayed Act 3 and let the Gef pilots live, only to regret it later as they made things quite a pain on hard mode :P
As far as I know you only get to call the Toutatis if you take really long to sufficiently damage the Carthage, as a sort of 'lets finish this' option.
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No, I think you get the option when both Naras have departed and you don't have any other assets on station.
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Will check FRED but after a simulator replay and toying with the Carthage's turrets Noemi started mumbling this had to end fast, and the Toutatis option came up. Maybe I lost the frigates without giving it thought but as far as I know they were around.
In the first and only campaign playthrough I did, I took the Carthage before the option was given.
EDIT: Checked. There's 4 conditions. Three of them involve the Carthage being disabled, the frigates having been destroyed or departed, but with different time intervals. The 4th has the Toutatis option even if the frigates are and stay in the field, but not until 5 minutes after the Carthage has been disabled.
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I didn't even know that you could bring in the Toutatis in Her Finest Hour
Also now that I think about it, I did have one technical issue with Her Finest Hour. Might be my computer since the same thing happens when I play Fallout: New Vegas. If I play F:NV for an extended period, it stutters every second like clockwork. The same thing happened in Her Finest Hour when I called in the attack. The problem doesn't show up in any other mission so I dunno... :confused:
Also I replayed Act 3 and let the Gef pilots live, only to regret it later as they made things quite a pain on hard mode :P
I get the clockwork like stutter after calling in the fleet too! FPS stays at a constant 30~40...but the stutter (like after every second) is consistent. Never experienced anything of this sort in FSO before.
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Also, I liked Thorn more than the wingmen because Thorn was straight forward with me the whole time and didn't seem dodgy with his answers.
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I had no technical issues running Act 3
Nope, none whatsoever. Compiled the code with the Jan. 7 patch, and it worked like a charm (Ubuntu 12.10). Well, apart from the weapon selection screen, but that's minor.
I read most of the material in the dreamscape
I did, although I hardly remember any of it. The dialogues were not very memorable :(
I released the Gefs in 'Nothing is True'
One of them replied with "Thank you! Thank you so much! Ghanna, I'm coming home!" I knew I'd made the right choice.
I believed the Ridwan pilots had to die
Three lives against almost certain Vasudan participation in the war? Yes. Unfortunate, but it should be so.
Those wingmen were not my favorite people
We weren't even properly introduced! Well, obviously Noemi was, given her behaviour in the first Dreamscape, but I had no clue who these people were.
I had a horrible time on the assassination
Took me three tries to find out the blast range of the Shrikes, then two more to realize that I really didn't stand a chance against the fighters. And that was despite the fact that...
I used the decoy transport during the assassination
Looking for a better way to do it, the sensor scramble didn't seem very useful, but in the end...
I hacked a Mjolnir during the assassination
... and got away without so much as a scratch on the paintwork.
I destroyed the Gef reactor in 'One Future'
It seemed like the easier way: the destroyer wouldn't follow me in there, and I wouldn't have to pit a group of good marines against a few hundred thousand suicidal fanatics (they knew they were crashing into Earth, right?)
'One Future' didn't change my earlier decision about the Gef pilots
I was mildly annoyed, but the mission was easy anyway.
The Custos-X
No opinion. Some of it was fun, but overall it was kinda dull.
I was overwhelmed by 'Her Finest Hour'
Very much so. Even with help from IRC, it took me no less than ten tries. I didn't sign up for that!
I took the Carthage's surrender
The Carthage is a strategic asset of vital importance, and Calder leaves its fate to a rook with a vengeance? Seriously?
I had no trouble with the turret placement in 'Eyes in the Storm'
Apart from poor camera response. I let the SOC convoy sneak in until it was right over the armed platforms, then activated the turrets for maximum surprise effect. I felt clever :)
I wasn't bothered by 'Universal Truth'
Bothered? Was I supposed to be bothered?
I escaped 'Universal Truth' with my mind intact
Quite so, and with no major difficulties. I got all the information out of the Comm Nodes, but had no time to mentally process all of it with the timer running. I think I could have learned more out of it without time pressure.
I recognize the necessity of the Fedayeen
Especially in crisis situations, this Machiavellian approach seems justified.
I have supported the UEF, and still do
Ubuntu offers a better world, a peaceful and prosperous society. And then the Tevs had to come and spoil it all.
Humanity is doomed!/Humanity has a chance!
I'm eager to see how this plays out in future releases...
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I am surprised by the number of people letting the GEFs go for morale reasons, yet justifying the UEF pilots had to die. Almost a 50% change in empathy in 2 minutes? Is it an example of justification of circumstance because the UEF die regardless?
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I am surprised by the number of people letting the GEFs go for morale reasons, yet justifying the UEF pilots had to die. Almost a 50% change in empathy in 2 minutes? Is it an example of justification of circumstance because the UEF die regardless?
For me it was a combination of the fact that we were essentially blackmailing the Gefs, and they held up their end of the bargain, and that the Gefs are considered untrustworthy by every faction, so deniability should be pretty easy. UEF pilots on the other hand would garner a lot more attention if they cried foul.
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I am surprised by the number of people letting the GEFs go for morale reasons, yet justifying the UEF pilots had to die. Almost a 50% change in empathy in 2 minutes? Is it an example of justification of circumstance because the UEF die regardless?
I was too busy shooting the living sh*t out of the miners to notice until the Feddies were already dead. Like Ryu said, noone's going to take the word of some Gef scrubs. Plus you got to sanitize something, you're black ops godammit!
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If you're going to sanitize your fellow UEF pilots, might as well sanitize the Kostadin scum while you're at it.
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I am surprised by the number of people letting the GEFs go for morale reasons, yet justifying the UEF pilots had to die. Almost a 50% change in empathy in 2 minutes? Is it an example of justification of circumstance because the UEF die regardless?
Letting the UEF pilots live would have seriously compromised the operation. That one surviving Gef, not so much. And, like you said, letting the UEF pilots go was not a choice anyway. I confess that I had a hard time accepting it, but my wingmen made short work of them.
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There is no census option where you vaporize every last Gef with a gas miner. I pulled it off by accident on my 2nd play through (vaporized my 3 wingmen too, but hey).
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Great job chaps heaps of awsome moments! loved the custos mission (request a mission with a standard capital ship not a experimental version). 'her finest hours' was just nuts, in a good way! my only critisism is i liked the style and campain debriefings in part 1 better and the missions(didnt like the stealth so much). still awesome tho guys!
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I had some technical issues running Act 3
Shadows really stressed my computer a few times, but worked fine after disabling those, except for an antipodes crash. Only once though.
I read most of the material in the dreamscape
It was interesting and informative. Needs a faster ship so it doesn't take so long to get to people. I thought that detracted from the action a little.
I released Gef pilots
I'm a nice guy. They had families.
I don't believe the Ridwan pilots had to die
There are always other ways to frame such things. They have access to Fleet debris after all.
The wingman were not my favourite.
They weren't bad, just no connection, introduction, or development really. Simms, Karen, Levi, Olefumi etc are much more memorable.
I did poorly on the assassination.
I used the decoy transport.
Not emotionally. She needed to die, and I had no issue doing that. Escaping alive took a few turns, seeing as I blew myself up and didn't understand the beacon system. Now I find you can hack a mjolnir...
I captured the Gef habitat.
No point in massacring civilians. That's just monstrous.
I do not regret earlier Gef release.
It was the right call, but of course they were going to warn people. Doesn't make letting them go wrong.
I had issues flying the Custos-X
I like maneuverable ships. Bombers frustrate me, so a squishy cruiser with a 1km turning circle was agony. Gutting cruisers was fun though.
I adapted well to "Her Finest Hour"
That said, I still don't know how the artillery works, and it took me a few goes to get my act together and take advantage of stealth. I prefer to be a pilot, not fleet commander.
I took the Carthage's surrender.
Cos I'm nice. Plus why destroy something you can use? And Lopez is admirable.
"Her Finest Hour"
You can summon the Toutatis...?
Turret placement was easy in Eyes of the Storm
Kind of fun too. Not really part of the game, but interesting anyway.
Universal Truth kinda freaked me out.
The tendrils were a great touch. The facts weren't particularly freaky. That said, there was some adrenaline :D
I escaped with my mind intact.
"Lorna Simms is alive-" MASH 1! I WANT TO LIIIIIVE!! :D
I am uncomfortable about the Fedayeen.
They're psychopaths...casual killers for a cause I'm not sure is necessary. It made me sad Laporte went with them so easily. They used Simms as leverage, and Laporte as a tool. I don't like being used.
I support neither side.
The GTVA invasion is just wrong and counter productive. But the UEF's seeming capitulation to the alien influence is also not a good thing. As I said, I don't like being used.
Humanity has a chance
Albeit a small one, and if they do die, I hope it's with honour, not in civil war.
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Something I'd like to add here: I blew up the GEF Habitat... and felt terrible afterwards. It was not the amount of people that were said to have lived there, nor the Dream-ari Gef Girl that made me change my mind, it was Sergei Gwilym.
When I fled the habitat as it was about to blow, 4 fighters followed me out, my auto turrets engaged and destroyed them one at a time, when the habitat finally exploded, only one craft was left, Gwilym's.
As I tried to shoot him down, hearing him curse my name while contemplating the implications of what I had just done, I felt terrible. So much that I was about to jump out and leave him alive... and then a stray shot landed on his ship, killing him.
For minutes I stared silently behind me. At the burning habitat. At the charred junk. At the dead bodies. It was not until the other GEF cells were said to be arriving that I jumped out.
Thank you, I can't ever remember a game that made me feel so bad about getting revenge on someone, even a fictional character that gets barley any screen time.
"No I must kill the Gef Terrorists!" - Said Laporte
Al-Da'wa said: "No Laporte, you are the terrorist."
And then... Laporte was a mass murderer.
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I wouldn't be so terribly sad about a bunch of people that were on the verge of wiping billions of people on Earth and vaporizing it to the middle ages. Any survivor of that attack is to me a dangerous lunatic that shouldn't be trusted to live near any inhabitted solar system.
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I wouldn't be so terribly sad about a bunch of people that were on the verge of wiping billions of people on Earth and vaporizing it to the middle ages. Any survivor of that attack is to me a dangerous lunatic that shouldn't be trusted to live near any inhabitted solar system.
Surely thousands of them had no other choice, given the state of Kostadin Cell. (Of course, the guys who'd hurl themselves at you in spacesuits with suicide charges probably were true believers.)
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I wouldn't be so terribly sad about a bunch of people that were on the verge of wiping billions of people on Earth and vaporizing it to the middle ages. Any survivor of that attack is to me a dangerous lunatic that shouldn't be trusted to live near any inhabitted solar system.
Except that Kostadin cell was described as essentially a prison state, so I wouldn't necessarily assume that McDuff's plans were what the majority of the people living on that rock supported.
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That mission totally should've had an option to hack their subspace gate and put them in the path of a comet, they can go explore the cosmos just like they wanted.
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That mission totally should've had an option to hack their subspace gate and put them in the path of a comet, they can go explore the cosmos just like they wanted.
The habitat never would've survived the jump intact anyway.
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hmm I guess I wasn't clear enough. I'm not exactly concerned for their well being.
In the path of a comet, not on a comet. :drevil:
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Forget that, we should totally have the option of shoving it up Steele's ship exhaust ports!
"Admiral, Subspace jump detected. Holy $h!7, It's huge!"
Knowing Steele, he'd probably have a contingency for this however. :sigh:
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Please allocate them sensibly and don't vote for contradictory options.
Hm, damn, should have read that before voting... Only "contradiction" is that I felt uncomfortable with the Feyadeen yet saw their necessity as well.
I had some technical issues running Act 3
I already posted about the issues I had, with messages not showing up and some overall problems with UT
I read most of the material in the dreamscape
Including clicking about ten times afterwards to be sure to get all of the one-liners.
I sanitized the Gefs in 'Nothing is True'
Because I thought them a liability. If Steele or the GTVA had gotten their hands on them, the whole deception could have been endangered
OK, I misvoted on the next one, because I remembered wrong:
I don't think the Ridwan pilots had to die
I was a bit confused, but now I realize that this has to be the UEF pilots defending the convoy. For a moment, unfortunately the moment I voted, I thought they were supposed to be those two pilots 'on my list' in One Future, which didn't make sense at all in hindsight. I didn't feel like I had a special hatred towards them beyond them being enemy comabatants, so I voted this option.
However, I killed the UEF pilots in cold blood. Wrong place, wrong time, huge liability for a project that could win the war and save humanity (unless we are being double-deceived here...) Didn't even think twice about it.
Kovacs was my favorite wingman
I felt like he provided actual support, and was still interesting to talk to.
Those wingmen were not my favorite people
I hope this doesn't count as contradictory as well. It's just that they didn't quite live up to the competition from the past
I had no trouble pulling off the assassination
I was suprised actually, that there were so many things you could do to make it easier. Note, though, that I played on easy. I do not consider myself to be a good pilot.
I pulled that assassination off with NO ITEMS
Again, on easy. Went very smoothly, though. Went in, hacked comms, found transport, shot transport, escaped without damage to my hull. I guess this mission does scale with the difficulty a lot.
I captured the Gef habitat in 'One Future'
There was enough time to spare after I had eliminated the defenses, and killing without a need for it just doesn't sit right with me.
'One Future' didn't change my earlier decision about the Gef pilots
I still think of them as a risk that the GTVA could have exploited, no regrets killing them at all.
I loved flying the Custos-X
I had the fear that it'd overwhelm me, but it was surprisingly comfortable to fly, and the turret management was very easy and intuitive.
I was overwhelmed by 'Her Finest Hour'
Even though I was playing on easy, I had to fly it about eight times. The first few times, I completely forgot that I could scan the stations subsystems as well, and I kept getting killed by those damn turrets, trying to snipe them one by one with limited ammo, while still making it in time. I really should have been taking notes. Afterwards I was still completely overwhelmed by which wings to take, just basically calling in random ones all in one huge wave. After I had mastered the mission, though, I kinda liked the concept. It was basically my own fault for not paying attention closely enough that I needed a lot of tries.
I took the Carthage's surrender
I saw no value in destroying a ship that could possibly be repaired and put into our service, used for research of beam weapons, and even though they said they destroyed all the intel, some new information could always be brought to light.
I summoned the Toutatis in 'Her Finest Hour'
The first time I finished the mission, all my fighter wings were destroyed, yet the enemy had basically no beam-weapon potential left, so it was a no-brainer to fall back to it as a solution.
I had no trouble with the turret placement in 'Eyes in the Storm'
It took only a few seconds to get used to the way it works. It was a bit fidgety, but it worked out fine in the end.
'Universal Truth' really freaked me out
Especially when on my first try there was no dialogue, I was truly questioning my sanity ;)
But in all seriousnes, this is a tremendously well designed mission. I felt my heartrate going up, to say the least. It was disorienting and as dreamlike as you can probably design something with the engine at hand.
I escaped 'Universal Truth' with my mind intact
On my first try, even though without dialogue it was really weird, I just have to relay what were basically my thoughts after a certain point:
"Oh, now I have to stare at Ken for a while? OK... Hmm, the images in these nodes are interesting, but why does nothing happen when I probe further? Probably important for the outcome of the mission, like the more information I gather the riskier, but in the end the more rewarding for the next missions... OK, now Ken turns into Bei... I guess I have to follow him now for a change... Woah, suddenly Shivans and Vishnans... What the hell are they saying? I don't understand a word... Let's try to fly into that Dante, that's the way I came in, maybe it's the way out. Damn, my sanity went down - oh, finally some training messages at the top, wait what? Who is he talking about? Oh, jump-nodes, finally the right way out! Hm, finally some speech I can understand, even though it's just Aken Bosch... Why are the Vishnans after me? Ah, there's the Iceni, let's fly towards it. My sanity is quite low, I think, it's red and all garbled nonsense... Ah, an interface for questioning, let's hit 1.... Nothing happens? The hell? Am I already insane? Lets mash 1-4 repeadetly! Wait, what? Now I have interrogated him successfully? Well, maybe it's really trying to play tricks on my mind, and I will get the information afterwards or in the debriefing. What the ****? Why am I now in my past? Do I have to relieve my greatest defeat because I lost too much sanity. Wait, another decision, stay here or leave? Leave, of course. Why the **** does nothing happen when I press 1. Am I already doomed? Did they really design a complete sequence of events and situations that make you question your own sanity? That's genius! Oh, now I am in a different field of stars again. Oh, now the mission is over... Success? Wait... No, something it definitely not right here..."
I recognize the necessity of the Fedayeen
War births atrocities. If you do not want them, you have to oppose war itself. If you are already at war, however, it is foolish to hold yourself back, unless it gives you an advantage...
I'm uncomfortable with the Fedayeen
...On the other hand, I am very concerned what could become of the Fedayeen after the war is over. An institution like that doesn't die easily after they are no longer needed, and their basically absolute power without any restricitions in morality is a dangerous thing outside of wartimes.
I have supported the UEF, and still do
I think the GTVA is foolish when they think they could hold back Shivans with military power, and I think it was foolish to attack in Sol, wasting ressources on both sides, when there are bigger threats out there. Yes, they wanted to save us from the Vishnans, but they acted out of a selfish desparation without exactly knowing what they were doing. That, at least, is my opinion about it, but BP is still far from finished, and I may yet be surprised and forced to change my opinion.
Humanity has a chance!
The chances may not be great, but I do not believe in certainty when speculating about the future. Sure, the Shivans may be deceiving us as well, but it's certain that we could not beat them with strength alone. I'll rather be grasping at straws that have a small chance of working, than repeating old mistakes, or giving up entirely.
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I released the Gefs in 'Nothing is True'
One of them replied with "Thank you! Thank you so much! Ghanna, I'm coming home!" I knew I'd made the right choice.
Thats interesting, all I got was 'THIS ISN'T OVER!' before the guy jumped out.
I then wiped my save data and replayed it, detonating their charges as soon as I got the option. I wanted to make sure the change percolated through later parts of the campaign in case it was saved.
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I released the Gefs in 'Nothing is True'
One of them replied with "Thank you! Thank you so much! Ghanna, I'm coming home!" I knew I'd made the right choice.
Thats interesting, all I got was 'THIS ISN'T OVER!' before the guy jumped out.
I then wiped my save data and replayed it, detonating their charges as soon as I got the option. I wanted to make sure the change percolated through later parts of the campaign in case it was saved.
Different Gefs in the wing have different responses to their own survival or death.
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Hello, new to these forums (found them after discovering Blue Planet through youtube videos).
I'd like to give the makers of this some of the praise you deserve (too much for one person!), and give some suggestions that hopefully won't be taken as too criticising.
First the questions:
I had some technical issues running Act 3
I had to turn down the lighting in Her finest Hour to avoid low frame rates.
I also had trouble installing the mod. I have FS2 in C:\games\ and the installer insisted on creating a new folder called C:\Games\ for it when I told it so. Minor thing to fix once I realised the problem, but odd.
I read most of the material in the dreamscape
Or at least I think I did. You put it there and I want to follow the story, so of course I tried to read it all. I found the Dreamscape a rather bad choice for such info dumps though. The first time was neat, but adding basically another briefing stage for every mission (that requires its own loading screen and a minute or two total of flying around to read everything) didn't, to me, seem to justify the extra effort this must have caused to create.
I'd suggest to either do something with the dreamscape you can't do with more briefing screens (conversations fit in as extra command briefing pages), or leave them out.
One more thing on the dreamscape: I think some of the briefings around it were in the wrong order. IE the first time in the dreamscape, one of the wingman starts talking about 'the man in the shower', which confused me because the red alert briefing describing that incident didn't come until just after that dreamscape.
I released the Gefs in 'Nothing is True'
I assumed I had to fight for Noemi's soul in this campaign, so I took every chance I could to keep her human. But really, should that even have been an option? The Fedayyeen know that the GEF have some ties to the SOC/Steele. Giving him even a chance to find intact flight recorders of the strike seemed too high a risk to me.
I don't think the Ridwan pilots had to die
At least not at the convoy attack site. Finding UEF wreckage amongst the mess should have convinced the Vasudans to stay in the war, not get them question doing so. Why did their flight recorders conveniently only show why they arrived, but not what they saw? That's pretty complex editing to be done in a few seconds of combat.
Those wingmen were not my favorite people
None of them seemed as fleshed out as the wingmen from WiH1. Possibly because the odd order of dreamscape/diary entries made interacting with them confusing at times.
I had a horrible time on the assassination
I don't like stealth sneaking games, that's all. I'm sure it was a great mission for those who do.
I pulled that assassination off with NO ITEMS
I tried hacking the mjolnir the second try, but got bored when the directives said 'Wait nearby' for too long and just Grimlered the transport and got out (few sidhe shots as well, of course).
I captured the Gef habitat in 'One Future'
I wanted to fight the GEF destroyer!
'One Future' didn't change my earlier decision about the Gef pilots
Honestly, I'm still not sure what difference that decision made. The only problems I had with this mission was when the transport ran into one Alastor I'd missed because it was behind a tower.
I loved flying the Custos-X
I also loved the Blade itself. Just not convinced the mission fit into this campaign (more on that below).
I was overwhelmed by 'Her Finest Hour'
Starting the mission facing the whole mess made figuring out what was going on fairly difficult as everything overlapped. I also couldn't figure out till the third try how to call arty strikes (a note saying that you need to switch it away from free fire first would have helped).
As it was, I didn't feel like I was doing much that a junior(regular by now? not senior yet, really) pilot should have been doing. Why was Calder letting me direct fleets? Why were the Fedayyeen letting their most rookie member be in charge?
It was a neat puzzle mission and probably the best way to fly a stealth fighter in a big battle, but as I said, stealth games aren't my thing.
I took the Carthage's surrender
Gotta keep that humanity. Also, Agincourt + Carthage = maybe an extra ship for the finale?
Placing turrets was tricky during 'Eyes in the Storm'
The camera was jerky and I had trouble figuring out the controls. Also not a fan of tower defence games.
'Universal Truth' really freaked me out
Bravo I say! Needs checkpoints though.
I met the face of madness in 'Universal Truth'
Not on the first try.
I escaped 'Universal Truth' with my mind intact
Not the first time. Hang on Wargods, I'm coming to help!
I'm uncomfortable with the Fedayeen
As no doubt I'm meant to be. They are the nastiest things of black ops squared, after all.
I have supported the UEF, and still do
Always thought the GTVA were big meanies for attacking in the first place.
Humanity has a chance!
But Noemi is doomed. Too broken.
I think Blue Planet is a great campaign overall. Aqe of Aquarius, while well executed, didn't really wow me with the story. Everything seemed a bit too straight forward (I'm really glad WiH Act 3 finally throws some doubt on that, though I probably just missed it at the time). I enjoyed playing it, but wasn't suprised by much in the story. It hooked me enough to get into WiH1 though, and for that I thank it even more.
WiH1 is amazing! Interesting main character, side cast, overarcing plot, and I honestly don't know where all the clues are headed. I was expecting the elders to be building a summon-the-shivans-to-make-the-war-go-away button, but it seems not.
Amazing ending, as well. "We are not Fleet. We are Fedayyeen."
The gameplay was great as well, even though I think maybe a training mission or two for some of the new concepts might have helped. I had no idea what Subspace missile strikes were or how to stop them until the second playthrough. Especially the Uriel missions in the end threw a bit too much new gear at the player with no explanation. I loved those missions and the Uriel, but I was a bit confused as to what I should be bringing into missions and why.
Then comes WiH act 3. It was good. But it didn't feel as coherent as act 1 or 2. And I think that's for a few reasons:
-Characters. It was a short act, so there wasn't as much to work with I guess. And I understand that you were trying to un-humanise them. But to me that also un-characterised them. Add in confusing order of briefings around the dreamscapes (see shower incident mention above) and I had trouble getting mental images of them. Still worlds better than the anonymous FS2 pilots, of course!
-Dreamscape: I felt it broke the flow too much for what it did. If it's just a series of chats between Noemi and 1 other person each, it cold have fit into the command briefing as optional separate pieces, couldn't it? I get that you wanted to show it at least once, but after turn 2 it started feeling more like a chore than a cool way to add more info.
-Gameplay focus: This act has very varied gameplay. In a way that's good, but in a way that's bad. It's good in that it adds variety. It's bad in that it feels like each mission changes the game being played and you don't get a chance to get more comfortable or just enjoy any given new mechanic. Even if act 3 was meant as an introduction to mechanics in act 4 and 5, I felt like the only thing I learned was the need to read the new windows and try all the buttons named in them to see what happens (because without training missions or briefing explanations things like 'to call arty, first stop it from firing at will' were actual little puzzles to figure out in combat).
I liked the convoy mission, the cruiser mission, the non-tower defence part of the Jupiter mission (Uriels! Yeah!) and the scope of Her finest Hour. (The final mission was also great, but 70% cutscene, so not much to say about gameplay there.) I didn't like the assassination (mechanically speaking, morally I'm sure most don't but that's the point) the tower defence and the fact that in Her finest Hour I felt more like an old fashioned phone operator than a fighter pilot (as in, I would have preferred doing all that ordering about + getting stuck in in an Uriel myself).
The downside of trying so many new mechanics is of course that some won't like them all (like picky old me). That's not a reason to abandon them, but it's not really a reason to not explore them past one mission either.
Anyway: tl;dr I love Blue Planet, thanks for making it! But I have concerns over some changes in direction act 3 seems to have taken. I hope they get ironed out or made to pay off in Act 4 and 5, because the story is still going strong and I want to know where it goes.
I hope I make sense and again I hope I'm not to mean in the criticism.
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Different Gefs in the wing have different responses to their own survival or death.
As If I needed more reasons to replay the **** out of WIH Gamma & The (Future) Director's Cut.
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The only good humanity is a doomed humanity.
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Obviously.
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I had some technical issues running Act 3: Ran into couple problems but over all it runs good :)
I read most of the material in the dreamscape: It fits to the background sorry for Act 3.
I sanitized the Gefs in 'Nothing is True': Reason i've done it because if they were release, can the Fedayeen trust the Gefs word? Who knows if they send info to the GTVA tho.
I believed the Ridwan pilots had to die: For sake of Earth. Yeah..... Granted it may be wrong, but the Fedayeen knows that everything is at stake here to win the war against the GTVA.
I don't think the Ridwan pilots had to die: If they were to lived, well never know if Fedayeen recruit them or tell command on something.......
Kovacs was my favorite wingman
Falconer was my favorite wingman
Vidaura was my favorite wingman
Those wingmen were not my favorite people: Well in most blackops, you don't get to know people. They will do what it takes to get the job done.
I had a horrible time on the assassination: It takes practices, altho you don't get to do assassination in other campaigns.
I had no trouble pulling off the assassination: ^ same from the previous.
I used the decoy transport during the assassination: i use them but put them in the wrong place lol. not sure putting under the station would do.
I used the sensor flashbang during the assassination: yeah but need to learn to use them in a distance.
I hacked a Mjolnir during the assassination: didn't know about that part :nervous:
I pulled that assassination off with NO ITEMS: remains to be seen. :D
I destroyed the Gef reactor in 'One Future': I've destroyed it once but ended up getting stuck on my way out of the tunnel :banghead: Don't know how i did that lol
I captured the Gef habitat in 'One Future': Well its wrong to kill millions that arn't part what the Gefs were gonna do.
I loved flying the Custos-X: I acutally like flying the Custos-X ship. A fun ship :)
I was overwhelmed by 'Her Finest Hour': At first yes, didn't know what to do in order to get all the objection done correctly.
I adapted well to 'Her Finest Hour': Wrote down few notes, again takes few practices :D
I destroyed the Carthage: Now why would i want to destroyed that ship?
I took the Carthage's surrender: Who knows, could put that ship into good uses. Besides the UEF can adapted the shock jump that the Carthage's has.
I summoned the Toutatis in 'Her Finest Hour': MORE FIREPOWER!!!! :drevil:
I got the Toutatis killed by Serkr in 'Her Finest Hour': never got that part yet.
I had no trouble with the turret placement in 'Eyes in the Storm': Mission was cool.
Placing turrets was tricky during 'Eyes in the Storm'
I wasn't bothered by 'Universal Truth': Nah......
'Universal Truth' really freaked me out: Oh it scared the hell out of me for a min. Reminds back in Transcent, even with the music in the background :p
I met the face of madness in 'Universal Truth':
I escaped 'Universal Truth' with my mind intact. Since Noemi knows that Ken is real now (which i'm sure he'll show up either during Act 5 or BP3) and knows what to do now.
I found the laughing man in 'Universal Truth': Laughing man?
I recognize the necessity of the Fedayeen: again everything is at stake to win this war.
I'm uncomfortable with the Fedayeen: Who wasn't uncomfortable in the SOC? Hell Snipe was good and funny back then too.
I have supported the UEF, and still do: I wanted to see the UEF win this war. There fighting for their home. Even being cut off for over 50 years.
I have supported the GTVA, and still do: I see their point of view but they failed on diplomatic.
Humanity is doomed!: Remains to be seen.
Humanity has a chance!: Same
Over all you guys done a great job. Looking forward for act 4 and 5. On her finest hour, whats the name of the music that starts the mission till you called in the reinforcement?
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On her finest hour, whats the name of the music that starts the mission till you called in the reinforcement?
The song is Kronos by Two Steps from Hell :)
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I had some technical issues running Act 3
Not exactly technical issues. Said issues were more FRED-related because I played with .16 RC1 mwahahah!
I read most of the material in the dreamscape
Varies. I liked talking to the HOL and to Thorn.
I released the Gefs in 'Nothing is True'
I was a Buntu during the mission.
I believed the Ridwan pilots had to die
Well, it was necessary. These three guys nearly blew off the entire mission.
Vidaura was my favorite wingman
She was the one I considered the "most human". I liked her.
Those wingmen were not my favorite people
I still want my Wargod pilots back.
I had no trouble pulling off the assassination
The assassination was pure fun.
I used the decoy transport during the assassination
Yeah, I TRIED to make use of this asset, but it got beam'd anyway (too far away from the station)
I used the sensor flashbang during the assassination
The Shrikes?
I destroyed the Gef reactor in 'One Future'
Had a hard time with the Morena Macduff (and I wanted to solve the mission without killing thousands of people), then I decided to blow up the motivator.
'One Future' didn't change my earlier decision about the Gef pilots
They're friggin Gefs. Who caaares?
I loved flying the Custos-X
UEF definitely needs more of them.
I was overwhelmed by 'Her Finest Hour'
A bit. Didn't took any notes. But I adapted well after some trial-and-error. Was fun to order the artillery around.
I took the Carthage's surrender
It's still a shiny, blue Orion-Destroyer. And I like Lopez. And the colour blue.
I had no trouble with the turret placement in 'Eyes in the Storm'
TOWER DEFENSE!
'Universal Truth' really freaked me out
The mind**** moment of the year, spanning a lot of minutes.
Well, I wasn't bothered about the orbital bombardement. It's the dreamscape (on some sense) after all.
That "GD chase" freaked me out, especially when that thing was about to blast right through me with insane speed and the only thing you saw was greyish stuff floating above you.
And the rest was, plotwise, the absolute Mindscrew.
I met the face of madness in 'Universal Truth'
Oh, yes. I DID turn around.
Vishnans didn't captured me.
I escaped 'Universal Truth' with my mind intact
I don't know exactly about that. If you decide to stay, the mind integrity-meter says "perfectly fine", but considering the debriefing....
I found the laughing man in 'Universal Truth'
Dunno.
But I was visited by the Transcendent during a "funthrough". I still hate this guy
Oh, and he laughed at me. I found him, err, he found me :D
I recognize the necessity of the Fedayeen
The chaotic/lawful neutral (evil?) inside the UEF, doing the really dirty work. The war would be over without them.
I'm uncomfortable with the Fedayeen
I'm uncomfortable with the many Al-Da'was onboard the Masyaf.
I changed sides from UEF to GTVA
There was a little GTVA-supporter in me, during Act 1 and 2. And this little dude wasn't disappointed. GTVA never changed and I think, that they're doing the right thing. Self-determination for Humanity!
I'm actually very wondrous about Chiwetel Steele. He is aware of contingency MORPHEUS. Is he really the gloryhound, or is he trying to savor humanity and fears what may come?
I have supported the UEF, and still do
The Federation itself, especially the determined military. NOT the Elders.
Humanity has a chance!
Let's kick some vishnan ass. I want to order around Serkr Team next time.
Oh, and Toqueville mentioned the Vassago incident. Vassago's Dirge, anyone?
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Oh, and Toqueville mentioned the Vassago incident. Vassago's Dirge, anyone?
You might want to have a look at the tech description of BP's Cretheus.
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I used the sensor flashbang during the assassination
The Shrikes?
No, scanning the sensor subsystem of the station gives you the option you cause a massive emp missile effect that knocks out all sensors in the area (including yours).
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Oh, and Toqueville mentioned the Vassago incident. Vassago's Dirge, anyone?
You might want to have a look at the tech description of BP's Cretheus.
Hm, after deleting my old pilot file...which act3 mission unlocks all tech descriptions?
Using the F3 thingy, I can only so terran ships till the Atalanta.
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Just press ctrl-shift-S man
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The description of The Great Darkness and having a good look at it have made me even more curious about things... and have made me think about The GD's original purpose and why the protocol is what it is.
Thanks for the dang key combo, I forgot it even existed.
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I couldn't run Act 3 until jg18 made a build that used the old rendering code and therefore could run on mac OS 10.6. After that, my only technical issue was a random crash in the Jupiter mission when I let one of the Vasudan transports dock with the platform.
I read most of the material in the dreamscape. I think it was a really good idea to dump all the extra fleshing out info into this area, as it meant the briefings could be pure instruction for those super-dense missions without the campaign feeling too spare. I'd have liked it if the ships were a little closer together though!
One of the other pilots released the Gefs in 'Nothing is True'. I tried to make them take out the Vasudan fighters and stuff after their main job was done.
I believed the Ridwan pilots had to die because that's the whole thrust of the story, right? I guess at some point you will have to choose whether to sacrifice Simms to win? I only draw the line at my videogame mom--you can always get another videogame girlfriend.
Those wingmen were not my favorite people. I'm not super invested in any of the characters really, probably because we mostly just see them being douche bags and talking about how killing people is necessary and also kinda fun. I really enjoyed the Sam-Noemi meeting though where he was all "Come fly with me in this crystal friend-ship" and she wasn't having any of it.
I had a horrible time on the assassination and had to try it like 6-8 times because half the time I couldn't get the proper transport to register even when I was pointing right at it from point-blank range and the meter was spiked all the way up. I figured I was doing something wrong, so I tried the alternate paths (sensor and mjolnir) a couple times each and botched those up too before coming back and finally getting it right using the decoy.
I captured the Gef habitat in 'One Future', though I'm sad to say I let Earth be destroyed on my first time through because I had no idea what was going on. It turned out to be one of my favorite missions though!
'One Future' didn't change my earlier decision about the Gef pilots unless it would have been cooler. What changes if you kill the pilots?
I loved flying the Custos-X. Nothing like swatting wimpy fighters away with the main cannon.
I was overwhelmed by 'Her Finest Hour' because I couldn't remember what all the ships there were doing and didn't have a good grip on what to prioritize. I never figured out that you could line up multiple targets for the artillery ships, which might have helped with that.
I took the Carthage's surrender because I want to personally Kamikaze it into the Atreus in the last chapter, Koth-style.
I had no trouble with the turret placement in 'Eyes in the Storm', I just dumped them all in the beginning and never though about them again. That mission was really awesome, and I loved the skybox and orbital bombardment finale.
I wasn't bothered by 'Universal Truth', I guess because I didn't turn around and see the crazy thing that everyone is talking about. Actually, I was kind of bothered by the fact that Noemi is Bosch's brain's daughter, unless I'm misinterpreting that. I was totally crushing on Bosch's brain and then he was like "No, I am your father." :(
I recognize the necessity of the Fedayeen during the War in Heaven but they'll probably have to be disbanded before the subsequent Hoedown in Shivantown gets out of hand.
I have supported the UEF, and still do because that's who I'm playing as.
Humanity has a chance, and her name is Alpha 1. Duh. :) This chapter was super great; I think it's my favorite BP release yet. A big congratulations and thank you to everyone who worked on it!
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Just finished the game and the poll. Very cool!
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Bugs:
There was a bug where if the Ridwan (UEF?) fighters escaped in the first mission and it ended I got the mission success debrief instead of failure. I was however stopped from progressing as I should've been and forced to redo the mission.
I think the rest of these are known: Like swasmebuckly I ran into the bug with Vasudan transports docking and the game crashing. I also ran into the problem with not triggering the Shivan data nodes on replaying the final mission. Artillery stops responding in "Her Finest Hour" - also not really a bug but just slow frame-rates in that mission (to be expected though).
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Some thoughts and questions - I let the GEF pilots go, but only because I thought I was letting them live, but returning them to to UEF custody! (i.e. that they had one jump in their fighters and it was to Fedayeen controlled space). If I had known they were going to be truly released I would've sanitized - not mind you because I found out they called in reinforcements for the buddies in a later mission, but because the operational security of that mission demanded it! I mean if the UEF or Vasudans got word back the mission was a failure, but for the GEF pilots to do so it was okay? If the Kostadin cell turned those guys over to Steele, he might not have been so quick to destroy his erstwhile allies. There is a substantial risk he would've believed the Kostadins because it is exactly what he would have done in the UEF's place. The fact I found out that the GEF pilots told their friends of our ruthlessness (when I saved their lives and showed mercy, huh) didn't really bother because, well, frankly once I learned how to handle the Custos, the enemy units were no match.
None of the mission's difficulty (on medium) bothered me greatly (they were very intense though) but maybe 'cuz I didn't mind dying while I was figuring out what to do. :) For each mission I had to figure out the control scheme (could take a few tries getting killed) and that I had to stop acting like a fighter pilot: that I was assassin or commanding officer but not a fighter pilot. Once I let go of that and directed action instead of being in it, or only darting in when necessary, the missions became manageable.
Once I figured out the controls properly (I'm a slow learner, so a few tries :P), that helped completing the missions well - sometimes with flying colors: e.g. they were quite pleased with my assassination and not getting a scratch, hell not even being detected by using the turrets - though I think I might have borked it because I did start flying away before the thing fired, but it still fired so I guess it was okay (bug or no? because the description said to stay close to the turret). On a previous attempt, I tried the sensor disruptor, but it didn't seem to help, they got a radar lock on my anyway when I tried to kill the shuttle. How does one effectively use it?
Her Finest Hour I did alright in, but in some ways I'm glad I didn't do that well. Am I to take it that if you do really well and don't need or don't call in the Toutatis, that she gets destroyed by Serkr? That's would be a horrific loss for the UEF - I mean even if I captured the Carthage so that it could be used by the UEF as a destroyer, I'm not sure that mission would qualify as a victory ... So essentially, because I didn't do as well as I could've done and needed to call her in, the Toutatis survived? My incompetence was useful? :) I assume Calder escapes the destruction of his flagship? So I saved the Serenity and the Toutatis, but lost a lot of fighter pilots. I guess if I had to do it over again, while my version still sounds like great deal - one captured destroyer, one captured Corvette, two captured stations, one saved frigate, one saved destroyer, lots of dead fighter pilots - I would probably order the fighter pilots retreat immediately after disabling the Carthage, try to save more of them while still retaining the other positives. So as to the warning that the death of the fighter pilots may factor in to later missions, will so the saving of the Serenity or the Toutatis?
Thematically I liked it a lot, a really interesting tale. I'm still pro-UEF as I think the GTA waaaay overreacted. Their reasons make a little more sense than they did before as frankly before I couldn't see their gain in instigating a military confrontation. Now I can sort of see why they did it, but it was still a truly bad idea in my book. Too much risk, too little reward. How did they find out the Vishnans were manipulating the UEF society? I guess we'll find out more about that ...
The dreamscape was pretty neat. I usually mined it for all it was worth, even clicking multiple times to get the extra info. Universal truth was good, but it was a bit tiring holding the afterburners down. I failed a few times before finally reaching 'Ken'. I suspected about half-way through the campaign who Ken might be and it was interesting twist on the Vishnans and Shivans. Even if the outcome is desirable, no one likes being just a tool. Of course, I would be worried if I were Laporte that I was just a pawn of 'Ken'. After all the Shivans in the alternate universe wanted to continue the cull anyway, what changed their minds? Are they the same Shivans in our universe? Are they cross-universal? The Vishnans by their descriptions and actions appear to be partially ... I guess we'll find out more about that too ... :)
I like the notes about Steele - how the fact that all his traps required such precise timing, so many things to go as planned and that this could be his downfall. There's a quote I'm half-remembering which Wellington said of his French opponents ... something to the effect that their plans were magnificent pieces of clockwork - but it was not meant as a complement. Of his own plans he described them as cutting and retying ropes together when they fell apart. Paraphrased heavily as I couldn't find the quote. :( In other words, much the same criticism Laporte had of Steele: his plans are brilliant, but they require everything to go right, they're not flexible or adaptable. They require too much precision in the machinery.
So all-in-all well written, very inventive missions - it was nice not being just a simple fighter pilot, though some of the controls could've been explained better been ... cleaner. Overall I give a slight edge to the first two parts of WiH: the character arcs and emotional blow of Delenda Est and Sun Glare are hard to beat. But with that as the yard stick, this was another brilliant entry. Looking forward to the next installments! and - after the neat break that was Act 3 - fighting as a (mostly) regular fighter jock with Calder! :)
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Am I to take it that if you do really well and don't need or don't call in the Toutatis, that she gets destroyed by Serkr?
No. The Toutatis survives either way. If it doesn't get called, it sits in a safe place, probably Mars. The Toutatis is the Solaris in the ending cutscene.
The only way for it to die is if Serkr kills it in front of you, in which case you fail the mission.
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Am I to take it that if you do really well and don't need or don't call in the Toutatis, that she gets destroyed by Serkr?
No. The Toutatis survives either way. If it doesn't get called, it sits in a safe place, probably Mars. The Toutatis is the Solaris in the ending cutscene.
The only way for it to die is if Serkr kills it in front of you, in which case you fail the mission.
Yeah I was wondering about that ... I simply supposed it could've been the Eris, but I knew she was being transferred to Calder. It makes sense that if Serkr kills her that fails the mission - though oddly I don't even remember Serkr jumping in ... hmmm ... Is there something you have to fail to do to get Serkr called in or have them be effective?
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I like the notes about Steele - how the fact that all his traps required such precise timing, so many things to go as planned and that this could be his downfall. There's a quote I'm half-remembering which Wellington said of his French opponents ... something to the effect that their plans were magnificent pieces of clockwork - but it was not meant as a complement. Of his own plans he described them as cutting and retying ropes together when they fell apart. Paraphrased heavily as I couldn't find the quote. :( In other words, much the same criticism Laporte had of Steele: his plans are brilliant, but they require everything to go right, they're not flexible or adaptable. They require too much precision in the machinery.
I like the analogy of steele as the Napoleon figure and in some ways I think that's what the BP team were aiming for as the ruthless, feared and seemingly unstopable general however I think that the main inspiration for the upcoming battle of Earth will be the battle of Kursk in WW2.
There we also had a technologically superior, well trained and disciplined army going up against a force that had suffered numerous defeats, enormous losses in manpower/equipment but that had been boosted by the recapture of Stalingrad, the destruction of an enemy army group and upgraded weapons becoming available. Both sides know that loss for the defenders will end the war and both sides are going to throw everything they have got into the battle in order to win. For the aggressors however there is also the problems of logistics with depleted fuel supplies limiting the time that the can commit their full forces forcing them to make rash decisions as well as an increasingly impatient government demanding victory before the defenders can be properly reduced.
For this we can compare Steele to Von Manstien - a masterfull tank commander who knew how to position his forces in order to outmaneuver and inflict massive casualties on his enemy's.
In the other side we have what could be the unexpected hero of the defence of Earth Admiral Byrne a.k.a. Georgy Zhukov - Under severe pressure to commit his forces to costly battles he instead holds his best units in reserve utilising superior intelligence of his opponents plans and fortifies his position attempting to draw his enemy in to a costly slugging match where his enemy's mobility will be severely limited and his artillery can be used to cut down the assaults before they reach their goals.
In the end the aftermath of the battle may be the same. Both sides take horrendous losses but the line holds, The GTVA forces withdraw in order to regroup and await reinforcement and supply whilst the UEF use this breathing space to rebuild their shattered infrastructure and to finally mobilise their industrial base on to a war footing (which has been left intact as the GTVA forces sought to capture it to build their own forces).
Result UEF offensive begins just in time for BP3.
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Yeah I was wondering about that ... I simply supposed it could've been the Eris, but I knew she was being transferred to Calder. It makes sense that if Serkr kills her that fails the mission - though oddly I don't even remember Serkr jumping in ... hmmm ... Is there something you have to fail to do to get Serkr called in or have them be effective?
Serkr only jumps in if Steele thinks the Toutatis is too vulnerable. That roughly translates in the two artillery gone and/or most of the strike wings wasted. I don't remember the exact triggers.
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I like the notes about Steele - how the fact that all his traps required such precise timing, so many things to go as planned and that this could be his downfall. There's a quote I'm half-remembering which Wellington said of his French opponents ... something to the effect that their plans were magnificent pieces of clockwork - but it was not meant as a complement. Of his own plans he described them as cutting and retying ropes together when they fell apart. Paraphrased heavily as I couldn't find the quote. :( In other words, much the same criticism Laporte had of Steele: his plans are brilliant, but they require everything to go right, they're not flexible or adaptable. They require too much precision in the machinery.
I like the analogy of steele as the Napoleon figure and in some ways I think that's what the BP team were aiming for as the ruthless, feared and seemingly unstopable general however I think that the main inspiration for the upcoming battle of Earth will be the battle of Kursk in WW2.
There we also had a technologically superior, well trained and disciplined army going up against a force that had suffered numerous defeats, enormous losses in manpower/equipment but that had been boosted by the recapture of Stalingrad, the destruction of an enemy army group and upgraded weapons becoming available. Both sides know that loss for the defenders will end the war and both sides are going to throw everything they have got into the battle in order to win. For the aggressors however there is also the problems of logistics with depleted fuel supplies and an increasingly impatient government demanding victory before the defenders can be properly reduced.
For this we can compare Steele to Von Manstien - a masterfull tank commander who knew how to position his forces in order to outmaneuver and inflict massive casualties on his enemy's.
In the other side we have what could be the unexpected hero of the defence of Earth Admiral Byrne a.k.a. Georgy Zhukov - Under severe pressure to commit his forces to costly battles he instead holds his best units in reserve utilising superior intelligence of his opponents plans and fortifies his position attempting to draw his enemy in to a costly slugging match where his enemy's mobility will be severely limited and his artillery can be used to cut down the assaults before they reach their goals.
In the end the aftermath of the battle may be the same. Both sides take horrendous losses but the line holds, The GTVA forces withdraw in order to regroup and await reinforcement and supply whilst the UEF use this breathing space to rebuild their shattered infrastructure and to finally mobilise their industrial base on to a war footing (which has been left intact as the GTVA forces sought to capture it to build their own forces).
Result UEF offensive begins just in time for BP3.
Aye, Patton, Napoleon (although the Wellington quote was aimed at the French Marshals he fought in Spain rather than Napoleon himself), pick of any of the great German Panzer generals - any commander that emphasized decisive, aggressive action is a good model for Steele and for Napoleon the aura of invincibility the younger Napoleon had.
Kursk is a decent analogy but the UEF are also outnumbered in addition to be out-teched in their capital ship combat whereas, despite the horrendous losses, the Russians could still field huge numbers of troops (tangent: I remember one story, perhaps apocryphal, that, in the beginning of the campaign, the Germans captured more Russian divisions than the Germans had thought even existed). The UEF's one strategic advantage is the bottleneck of the artificial jump point and that GTA is still worried about Shivans so they can't just deploy their whole fleet through it. Steele even shattered much of the UEF industry deciding he could shorten the war rather than worrying about taking it intact. The Russians in one of the great logistical feats of the war, amazingly moved their industry out of harms way. In other words, I think the UEF has an even bigger hole to climb out of than the Russian did. :) I actually kind of agree with the Elders that a purely military victory seems unlikely for the UEF ... unless victory is defined that the GTA decides it simply isn't worth the losses it would take to defeat the UEF - i.e. the GTA government/populace gives up first if the losses are high enough. Kursk, as you pointed out, was the breaking point that allowed the Russians to go on the offensive. Excepting the result of GTA political collapse, which is possible, beating Steele simply means survival militarily. Any losses the GTA suffers can be replaced - the GTA lost a destroyer and simply deployed two more. The UEF have to hope a military victory translates into a political one (though of course there is also the Elder's 'secret plan' that lends a 'partial' victory over the GTA and can be used agains the Shivans).
How I think its going to go is the next act is survival against Steele's final plan with the setup that leads to a conflict within both the GTVA and UEF. Where elements disatisfied with the war against their home in the GTA finally take root and so does Laporte's insurrection against the Vishnan control in her government. This will set the stage for the final conflict against the Shivan/Vishnan/Great Darkness threat. And as I mentioned in my overly-long opus above, while the Vishnans may be enemies too (or at least with friends like them who needs enemies?), I also wouldn't trust Ken either if I were Laporte. There doesn't seem to be any reason why any of them would treat humanity as anything other than pawns on a board of bone (had to throw that in there). :P Maybe Ken does want humanity, 'his' once-species, to survive. Maybe the Vishnans are vindictive bastards - they certainly see humans as nothing more than ants, but then, the Shivans are no different in that respect. Humanity's, and, even more so sadly for them, the Vasudan's, prospects are not great, not zero, but it's going to get rough. :) But there I go prognosticating and am probably providing amusing fodder for the BP story team. :)
Speaking of Vasudans, they could use some newer designs and weapons in their fighters and cap ships too. :P C'mon BP team, show 'em some love! /sillymode - in seriousness, the new BP ship designs are really good, so I'd love to see them tackle new Vasudan fighters and cap ships beyond massive transports, but they may not have the time/resources to do so which given the massive undertaking is more than reasonable. :)
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Serkr only jumps in if Steele thinks the Toutatis is too vulnerable. That roughly translates in the two artillery gone and/or most of the strike wings wasted. I don't remember the exact triggers.
Got it - I had one artillery left and I think all my strike teams were wasted, so it must be both artillery units gone for them to appear. :)
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Speaking of Vasudans, they could use some newer designs and weapons in their fighters and cap ships too. :P C'mon BP team, show 'em some love! /sillymode - in seriousness, the new BP ship designs are really good, so I'd love to see them tackle new Vasudan fighters and cap ships beyond massive transports, but they may not have the time/resources to do so which given the massive undertaking is more than reasonable. :)
You're asking to the wrong people. Most of the assets used in BP were not made by or for BP. Go ask the rest of the community why they are too lazy to make more quality Zod ships !
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Quote from: crazy_dave on January 31, 2013, 11:01:33 am
Speaking of Vasudans, they could use some newer designs and weapons in their fighters and cap ships too. C'mon BP team, show 'em some love! /sillymode - in seriousness, the new BP ship designs are really good, so I'd love to see them tackle new Vasudan fighters and cap ships beyond massive transports, but they may not have the time/resources to do so which given the massive undertaking is more than reasonable.
You're asking to the wrong people. Most of the assets used in BP were not made by or for BP. Go ask the rest of the community why they are too lazy to make more quality Zod ships !
I thought they had newer vasudan assets, but they werent using them until the time when they are needed, as the vasudans havent really featured much to warrant brand new assests and really the only ships that appear are logistical and not military. I am sure when the vasudans get a bigger role in BP we will see some nifty new ships.
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Any chance that some of the Earth defense or Inferno Vasudan models will be used? Some of them look swweeeeeeet :nod:
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crazy_dave
Although GTVA forces are greater in Cap ship strength we still don't know who has the advantage in strike craft, the UEF bomber core is the one thing Steele fears.
It is true that the GTVA can replace losses but can they do this indefinitely? Konsu will not risk getting involved militarily as long as the Shivan threat exists and the Terran half is already unstable - committing more forces could lead to a second NTF uprising.
Not to mention that the population of Sol is larger than that of the entire Terran half of the GTVA. The population will have been motivated by the atrocities carried out by the Terrans and will probably be signing up on-mass much in the same way as the population of the USA after Pearl harbour because they will now believe the UEF's cause to be just. If the UEF can get some breathing space then depending on available resources can hugely expand their forces.
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The GTVA is already committing more forces: The Phoenicia/Vengeance BG is on the line already, and both the Agamemnon/Insuperable and the Illium/Pallas BGs are in reserve right on the other side of the node. Moreover, the GTVA is much, much more capable of absorbing losses than the UEF. No, they can't reinforce indefinitely, but still more than the enemy.
The whole comparison to WW2 doesn't actually work. The longer this war goes on, the more inevitable GTVA victory is. The GTVA isn't weeks away from logistical collapse, while UEF is. UEF victory, if it comes at all, is very unlikely to come through purely military means.
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Aesaar
You are looking at this as though things are going to continue as they are. Its not - there is a massive battle coming up that Steele can easily lose. As long as the pressure on the UEF is kept up then they are looking at collapse but if this pressure can be released then they can recover.
I also think that it is unlikely that the UEF can win by force alone but if the GTVA suffer a second uprising (or even the threat of one) then their chances start looking a lot better.
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Steele is more likely to win th eupcoming attack on Earth than the UEF is. Which is natural, since he has more ships, better ships, and most importantly, the initiative. He only needs to keep up pressure for the next few days. Then he'll strike, and he'll very probably win.
The UEF would need months (if not years) of peace and quiet to get back to a competitive footing. Which they won't get. Even a huge uprising in GTVA space wouldn't change this. It would take more time to retreat back to Delta Serpentis than it would to just continue with the plan as it is. As Byrne says, this war won't be won through force of arms. The entire point of Acts 1 and 2 was proving this.
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Gray113: The balance of available forces, both immediately and in the mid-to-long term, vastly favours the GTVA. If there is a WW2 reference to be made, it's the US Navy vs the Imperial Japanese Navy; there are much more solid parallels in the strategic situation there.
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But I think Gray has some good points about the possibility of an uprising in the GTVA.
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Shambhala is clearly a big radio, going to broadcast the benefits of Ubuntu to the whole GTVA, thereby causing the feared uprisings.
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The E
I would agree in the short term but mid/long term?
If the battle of Earth is lost then its game over both sides know this - will Steele know when to withdraw if he is losing? Will this even be a possability?
If (and it is a big IF) The UEF can inflict heavy enough casualties on the GTVA forces whilst preserving enough of their own strength then what is to stop them from rebuilding? Is there a shortage of resources in Sol that so far has not been talked about or some other reason that their greater manufacturing ability will not be able to allow them to catch up?
I would actually look at it the other way - the Japanese navy was stronger at the start of the conflict but the USA was able to replace losses and exploit R&D breakthroughs in order build an advantage over time. A position that I feel would be comperable to the UEF - IF they manage to defeat Steele's assault
P.S sorry for hijacking the thread
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Which side seems to be getting stronger over time to you? Who has lost so much of their infrastructure that they can barely support military operations?
You want a more explicit comparison, look at the dialogue about the relative skill of the two fighter corps.
Your entire premise would require the UEF to take and keep the initiative. The Wargods tried, but ended up failing at the latter. What you're suggesting would require an unbelievable miracle to happen, and would contradict everything we know about the war.
Is there a shortage of resources in Sol that so far has not been talked about or some other reason that their greater manufacturing ability will not be able to allow them to catch up?
Yes there is. That resource is time.
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Aesaar
And who is going to risk throwing away every advantage they have in a unnecessary cataclysmic final battle? The GTVA
If they don't force the battle but instead maintain the pressure then the UEF will collapse in time and the GTVA get everything they want. Steele is being forced to attack before he is ready - this gives the UEF an advantage that they would not have otherwise - one that they can capitalise on.
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Attrition was Severanti's strategy. Steele wants a quick end to the war. He's still working on his own timetable. His political masters have given him a ridiculous amount of freedom.
Just because he's working faster than Severanti doesn't mean he's rushing anything.
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That is not true. If given the choice, Steele would rather keep bleeding the UEF dry - that would be the wiser strategy for the GTVA if they could afford the time, one that ensures victory with minimal losses. That is the exact strategy Severanti has been employing for 18 months and the results of this strategy enabled Steele to plow through 3rd Fleet with minimal resistance.
But the GTVA can't afford to follow this wise but lengthy strategy. Shivan incursion could happen at any time. Civil unrest is brewing at home. And last but not least, the Project, whatever it is, is getting closer to completion. The Tev must end the war as quickly as possible. Their decision to deploy four more battlegroups is clearly a calculated, but major gamble born of desperation to end the war now, and because of that they will sustain losses. Because UEF logistical collapse is still weeks/months away. Because Byrne has saved the near entirety of 1st Fleet's strength. Because Netreba is barely bloodied, and that Calder is more than willing to hit where it will hurt the most, and still able to do so. And because the Fedayeen are now on the loose.
Steele's is using more agressive tactics to end the war swiftly, but this does not come without a price. It is, in fact, a massive gamble. Steele sustained significant losses during Earth' Blitz, and four more battlegroups or not, genius or not, another attack on Earth as predicted by Cassandra will lead to more losses. What remains to be seen is how large those losses will be.
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So Severanti was a better strategist than Steele? ;)
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Not necessarily.
It depends on what your priorities are. Like MatthTheGeek said, if you're going for a slow, eventual win that minimizes losses, then a conservative strategy like Severanti's is better. However, if you do not have time for that, and winning the war quickly is more important despite comparatively greater amounts of human life lost, then Steele's more aggressive and risky tactics make more sense.
And remember, Steele may be taking risks, but he's doing so intelligently. I don't think he'd underestimate his opponent and make a severe blunder. He's keeping his gambles to what is realistically achievable, basically. He strikes me as the kind of leader who would, if told to accomplish something impossible by his superiors, would tell them "No, I cannot do that, and I will not waste lives trying."
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So Severanti was a better strategist than Steele? ;)
No. Steele would just have followed a similar strategy than Severanti under the circumstances of those first 18 months. Possibly with better results. It's just that the circumstances have changed, and this optimal "slowly bleeding them out" strategy is not viable anymore.
He strikes me as the kind of leader who would, if told to accomplish something impossible by his superiors, would tell them "No, I cannot do that, and I will not waste lives trying."
Excepted that Steele knows about the Project, and knows about Contingency Morpheus. He knows what is at stakes here and now, so he understands the necessity of those losses.
Plus, refusing orders for the sake of the people under your command is more of Lopez's type. Both psych profiles are massively different.
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Wait, are we assuming that Steele's assault on Earth will fail?
The impression I got was that he would win, albeit with heavy losses.
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Like I said if Steele wins then its game over - not much point discussing that from a what happens afterwards other than accepting the surrender of what is left of the UEF military
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Unless Byrne decides that protecting the secret project is more importiant than Earth.... :eek2:
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I don't think Steele's stupid or ignorant of what's going on around him. What I mean is, even though it's probably not his first choice, he probably knows that the GTVA needs to win as soon as possible and has thought of a 'plan B' where he has to do a rushed attack.
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But in act 3 we found out that the Fed intelligence are capable of matching Steele's strategic planning and of forcing him to make errors.
Will the knowledge of this make him less confident in his own actions - will he be second guessing himself from now on or will he continue as before and risk being caught out again like at Neptune?
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But in act 3 we found out that the Fed intelligence are capable of matching Steele's strategic planning and of forcing him to make errors.
Will the knowledge of this make him less confident in his own actions - will he be second guessing himself from now on or will he continue as before and risk being caught out again like at Neptune?
This has to be the biggest question on his mind right now. All of a sudden he's got a fleet riddled with enemy agents and someone on the other side is playing on his level.
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I thought that was the whole point of act 3 - the deconstruction of the myth of Steele.
Once it is shown that the fleet can strike back against the GTVA fleet and win it changes the whole outlook for the player and gives the impression that the UEF still have a chance.
Then it shows the GTVA fleet at the end and that sinking feeling comes back.... :doubt:
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Steele does prove himself extremely effective at finding those enemy agents though, if the HoL operative in the dreamscape is any indication, and they still can't match him in terms of resources especially since they've already used all the HoL viruses during act 3.
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There doesn't seem to be any reason why any of them would treat humanity as anything other than pawns on a board of bone (had to throw that in there)
From my understanding, you humans can live with being pawns if the game makes sense.
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can live with being pawns if the game makes sense
Worst line in the game. I cringed the first time I heard that.
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No way, that line owns :colbert:
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I was unable to play Tenebra until my friend let me use his computer.
I freed the Gefs, and I didn't regret it later on.
I thought the mission where you fly the Custos was brilliant.
I thought "Her Finest Hour" was very difficult, and I accepted the Carthage's surrender.
"Universal Truth" unnerved me a little, but it wasn't really scary.
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But I think Gray has some good points about the possibility of an uprising in the GTVA.
Aye, Kursk as a turning point was only a good analogy up to a point because Kursk solidified the Russians gaining the upper hand militarily. Ignoring the secret project (which itself is not entirely militaristic according to our information so far), a UEF military victory in Steele's final attack has to be big enough to cause a political victory within the GTA - force them to reconsider because the population won't support the war or even actively revolts against the leadership. In terms of simple numbers and units, the UEF is still going to be outmatched even if they do pull off a military victory.
There doesn't seem to be any reason why any of them would treat humanity as anything other than pawns on a board of bone (had to throw that in there)
From my understanding, you humans can live with being pawns if the game makes sense.
:)
The E
I would agree in the short term but mid/long term?
If the battle of Earth is lost then its game over both sides know this - will Steele know when to withdraw if he is losing? Will this even be a possability?
If (and it is a big IF) The UEF can inflict heavy enough casualties on the GTVA forces whilst preserving enough of their own strength then what is to stop them from rebuilding? Is there a shortage of resources in Sol that so far has not been talked about or some other reason that their greater manufacturing ability will not be able to allow them to catch up?
I would actually look at it the other way - the Japanese navy was stronger at the start of the conflict but the USA was able to replace losses and exploit R&D breakthroughs in order build an advantage over time. A position that I feel would be comperable to the UEF - IF they manage to defeat Steele's assault
P.S sorry for hijacking the thread
I also apologize. :)
Arguing which analogy is best is always tough because as much as things fit, too many others generally don't. :) The US Navy in the beginning was actually just as powerful than their Japanese counterparts, the Americans just didn't understand how to use what they had as effectively. The Japanese also had the initiative, but were unable to translate that into total victory and were unable to harm US infrastructure. Eventually, as you say, the US rebuilt stronger and better and after that it was only a matter of time. The Allied tanks and equipment were better than their German counterpart's in the very beginning of the war, but the Germans knew how to use what they had so much more effectively.
In contrast, the UEF are just completely outmatched. I think they do tore down the myth of Steele somewhat, but the GTA have many more destroyers, fighters, and battlegroups, overall better tech, etc ..., have well trained, determined soldiers, and even their worst commanders don't appear to be stupid. As you said, the view of the battlegroups arrayed at Jupiter is quite the sight ... and that's still not even close to what the GTA could bring to bear if they really, really wanted to ... (and could afford to politically)
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Of course another thing to keep in mind is that the UEF and GTA are not each other's true enemies - extinction is. At the moment each side believes the other is a threat to the extinction of the human race. If the true enemy of extinction does rear its head, that will necessitate a change in the dynamics beyond a UEF or GTA victory.
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Speaking of Vasudans, they could use some newer designs and weapons in their fighters and cap ships too. :P C'mon BP team, show 'em some love! /sillymode - in seriousness, the new BP ship designs are really good, so I'd love to see them tackle new Vasudan fighters and cap ships beyond massive transports, but they may not have the time/resources to do so which given the massive undertaking is more than reasonable. :)
You're asking to the wrong people. Most of the assets used in BP were not made by or for BP. Go ask the rest of the community why they are too lazy to make more quality Zod ships !
You know, now that I read that I realized I had been told that before and had forgotten. To be fair it was two years ago ... :blah:
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The first release of War In Heaven seemed to present a balance of both sides militarily. The UEF had some tactical successes but so did the GTVA. Act III seemed to skew somewhat toward the UEF. The GTVA still seems to have the overall initiative, but the loss of the Carthage and Neptune was a boon for the UEF.
It will be interesting to see which way Act IV goes. Unless the GTVA is stupid (I hope they won't be), with the additional destroyers they should be able to keep the initiative and have some more victories.
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The first release of War In Heaven seemed to present a balance of both sides militarily. The UEF had some tactical successes but so did the GTVA. Act III seemed to swing things totally in favor of the UEF; except for the ending scene, I don't remember any good notes for the GTVA or any successes they had tactically/militarily.
It will be interesting to see which way Act IV goes. Unless the GTVA is stupid (I hope they won't be), with the additional destroyers they should be able to keep the initiative and have some more victories.
Man I could not disagree more with this post.
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The first release of War In Heaven seemed to present a balance of both sides militarily. The UEF had some tactical successes but so did the GTVA. Act III seemed to swing things totally in favor of the UEF; except for the ending scene, I don't remember any good notes for the GTVA or any successes they had tactically/militarily.
It will be interesting to see which way Act IV goes. Unless the GTVA is stupid (I hope they won't be), with the additional destroyers they should be able to keep the initiative and have some more victories.
I'd say that overall the first two games swung pretty heavily in favor of the GTA - the UEF had some victories to be sure, but overall the GTA came out very far ahead. Remember there were only about 5 actual missions in Part 3 and they were all with the Fedayeen. In the Dreamscape, they mention once or twice that other battles have not gone so well for the UEF during the same period of time. These were crucial engagements but in many respects more of an evening of the scales (not even quite) given the heavy losses the UEF has otherwise taken.
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I apologize for the hyperbole in my post. I edited it to make it sound somewhat more reasonable at least.
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That is not true. If given the choice, Steele would rather keep bleeding the UEF dry - that would be the wiser strategy for the GTVA if they could afford the time, one that ensures victory with minimal losses. That is the exact strategy Severanti has been employing for 18 months and the results of this strategy enabled Steele to plow through 3rd Fleet with minimal resistance.
But the GTVA can't afford to follow this wise but lengthy strategy. Shivan incursion could happen at any time. Civil unrest is brewing at home. And last but not least, the Project, whatever it is, is getting closer to completion. The Tev must end the war as quickly as possible. Their decision to deploy four more battlegroups is clearly a calculated, but major gamble born of desperation to end the war now, and because of that they will sustain losses. Because UEF logistical collapse is still weeks/months away. Because Byrne has saved the near entirety of 1st Fleet's strength. Because Netreba is barely bloodied, and that Calder is more than willing to hit where it will hurt the most, and still able to do so. And because the Fedayeen are now on the loose.
Steele's is using more agressive tactics to end the war swiftly, but this does not come without a price. It is, in fact, a massive gamble. Steele sustained significant losses during Earth' Blitz, and four more battlegroups or not, genius or not, another attack on Earth as predicted by Cassandra will lead to more losses. What remains to be seen is how large those losses will be.
Wars of attrition typical generally cost more in lives than direct action, they just do it over a longer period of time. Direct, aggressive action is more risky and if you fail you may have spent more lives in vain if your side can win by attrition. Attrition is safer if you can face the "horrifying arithmetic". For instance, had Gallipoli worked, the Brits would've still lost a lot of men in that engagement, but they would've knocked Turkey out of the war in one blow. That would've meant saving tens of thousands of lives in the end. However, mostly due to some incompetence on the British commanders and partially due to some tenacious Turkish defending (Attaturk), it failed and many lives were lost and the Brits never broke out of their foothold there, costing even more lives. Both sides in the American Civil War thought they could win be direct action, when it became clear to the North that wasn't going to happen they finally adopted the Anaconda strategy which had been proposed from the beginning but rejected because they had thought a war of attrition was unnecessary against the South.
So direct action like Steele is taking is certainly riskier, but if it works, fewer lives will have been lost than integrated over time in a war of attrition.
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I don't think that the first release presented a balance of both sides militarily at all. The UEF got routed.
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That is not true. If given the choice, Steele would rather keep bleeding the UEF dry - that would be the wiser strategy for the GTVA if they could afford the time, one that ensures victory with minimal losses. That is the exact strategy Severanti has been employing for 18 months and the results of this strategy enabled Steele to plow through 3rd Fleet with minimal resistance.
But the GTVA can't afford to follow this wise but lengthy strategy. Shivan incursion could happen at any time. Civil unrest is brewing at home. And last but not least, the Project, whatever it is, is getting closer to completion. The Tev must end the war as quickly as possible. Their decision to deploy four more battlegroups is clearly a calculated, but major gamble born of desperation to end the war now, and because of that they will sustain losses. Because UEF logistical collapse is still weeks/months away. Because Byrne has saved the near entirety of 1st Fleet's strength. Because Netreba is barely bloodied, and that Calder is more than willing to hit where it will hurt the most, and still able to do so. And because the Fedayeen are now on the loose.
Steele's is using more agressive tactics to end the war swiftly, but this does not come without a price. It is, in fact, a massive gamble. Steele sustained significant losses during Earth' Blitz, and four more battlegroups or not, genius or not, another attack on Earth as predicted by Cassandra will lead to more losses. What remains to be seen is how large those losses will be.
Wars of attrition typical generally cost more in lives than direct action, they just do it over a longer period of time. Direct, aggressive action is more risky and if you fail you may have spent more lives in vain if your side can win by attrition. Attrition is safer if you can face the "horrifying arithmetic". For instance, had Gallipoli worked, the Brits would've still lost a lot of men in that engagement, but they would've knocked Turkey out of the war in one blow. That would've meant saving tens of thousands of lives in the end. However, mostly due to some incompetence on the British commanders and partially due to some tenacious Turkish defending (Attaturk), it failed and many lives were lost and the Brits never broke out of their foothold there, costing even more lives. Both sides in the American Civil War thought they could win be direct action, when it became clear to the North that wasn't going to happen they finally adopted the Anaconda strategy which had been proposed from the beginning but rejected because they had thought a war of attrition was unnecessary against the South.
So direct action like Steele is taking is certainly riskier, but if it works, fewer lives will have been lost than integrated over time in a war of attrition.
Since you brought up the American Civil War: wasn't it eventually Grant's and Sherman's aggressive actions that convinced the South to surrender? McClellan's more timid actions in the earlier parts of the war I've heard argued extended the war by a year or two.
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Since you brought up the American Civil War: wasn't it eventually Grant's and Sherman's aggressive actions that convinced the South to surrender? McClellan's more timid actions in the earlier parts of the war I've heard argued extended the war by a year or two.
Tactics versus strategy :)
McClellan was tactically/operationally timid, but strategically the Peninsular campaign was designed to knock out the South in one blow by taking Richmond, forcing the government to flee or surrender and capturing much of the centralized control of the Southern states. McClellan's failure to do so despite the golden opportunities he had lengthened the war. In fairness to McClellan while he was poor General in many respects, he was a gifted military organizer and trainer. His designs for the D.C. defense works were practically impregnable and his training of the Army of Potomac was superb. However, he couldn't bring himself to sacrifice those men when necessary to achieve the tactical victories necessary to achieve the decisive blow he sought. A more aggressive general might have failed anyway, but with him it was assured. Grant and Sherman would not have made those mistakes.
When Grant took command, a single decisive blow was no longer seen as an option. Grant and Sherman were tactically/operationally aggressive, but continued the envelopment of the South, then destroying infrastructure and armies, reducing the South's capability to continue the war instead of going for one decisive victory that would itself force the capitulation of the South. Strategic attrition should not be confused with timidity.
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Concerning the previous post of mine General Battuta disagreed with: I didn't mean to imply the UEF was winning the overall war. What I meant to say was that for an organization that's outnumbered/outgunned, the UEF is doing relatively well (taking Neptune and the Carthage and that logistics vessel in R1 for instance). The tide is still overall against them for now.
My apologies General. :)
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Concerning the previous post of mine General Battuta disagreed with: I didn't mean to imply the UEF was winning the overall war. What I meant to say was that for an organization that's outnumbered/outgunned, the UEF is doing relatively well (taking Neptune and the Carthage and that logistics vessel in R1 for instance). The tide is still overall against them for now.
My apologies General. :)
They shouldn't have to 'take' Neptune they should've kept it in the first place. Taking back what should never have been lost in the first place is hardly a victory. The UEF had a whole infrastructure and military-industrial complex to work with and three sufficiently large fleets to defend it, all in a single system - meaning near instantaneous travel to any point in Sol as I understand it. They had a whole scary bomber corps they held back and left the job of parrying the Tevs to just a single fleet (which already had standing commitments i.e. suppressing the Gefs). 1st Fleet (which has hardly any standing commitments) literally just sat on their hands and watched Severanti march through the node, they should've sent the GTVA packing the moment they stepped foot in Sol.
Really, the UEF brought this on themselves. Once the GTVA gained a foothold it was all over for them.
On a sidenote - why not merge this with the discussion thread, mods?
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Holding back the bomber corps was the best decision the UEF ever made.
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Since, you know, its the single thing that's preventing Steele from conducting a single decisive attack on Earth.
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But if they had used it when it was needed they would've been able to turn the node into a chokepoint.
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Oh, as in the first hours of the war? Yeah, there's no question that that was a moment for aggressive action.
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That probably would have required more strategic foresight than the UEF had at the time?
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It's easy to say that in hindsight, but they just didn't have the intel to take that decision. Especially after they just lost a Karuna through massive beam fire.
Intelligence can win or loose wars. It's not just about assets.
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- Technical issues
I didn't check any of these, but you could probably consider me 'no issues.' Nothing prevented me from playing, but I did get stutter in Her Finest Hour when the ordinance started flying after kicking off the attack. It also kept stuttering after everything calmed down, so that was kinda weird. I got the same stutter earlier in the campaign also, but I can't recall exactly where. Opening cutscene maybe? Also, unsure if this is a tech issue or not, but in Her Finest Hour the artillery didn't seem to lock up anything but the mjolnirs. I never ordered them to shoot the Carthage, so I don't know if that worked or not, but they would not attack the minelayers or corvettes. My first thought was maybe range, but all those are closer than the beam cannons aren't they?
- I read most of the material in the dreamscape
Very much enjoyed this dynamic. I did take notice of the distance to each ship, but it didn't particularly bother me. I have two minor critiques this section. The situation map is a bit overbearing and makes the text hard to read (I'll take this opportunity to say this was in general true for ANY mission in which there was a lot of text, and I think that the dialogue needs to go back to the top so we can be facing things and still read). I would move it further away or make it less bright or something. The second is the one-liners. They should be sequential instead of random, so we don't have to spam the fire button and be flooded with the same messages over and over before we get to the new ones. I probably missed a few due to this.
- I sanitized the Gefs in 'Nothing is True'
With barely a second thought. Partly because I knew ahead of time this was the plan, partly because they were enemy agents engaged in underhanded subterfuge with Steele.
But mostly -- and this applies to all decisions/feelings in the campaign -- for whatever reason I didn't ever emotionally connect in this act. I was AWARE of the moral dilemmas and tough choices, but never FELT any of them. It never felt like more than a video game to me, which wasn't necessarily true of AoA and WiH acts 1 and 2. I was floored when the GTVA attacked at the end of AoA, and actually felt a bit angry when the GTVA attacked civilians in WiH, and hopeless at the end of Delenda Est. In act 3, every decision I made was as a gamer completing an objective. I needed to kill the Gefs to ensure they didn't leak about the ruse, so I did. I can't explain this. It's definitely not that the writing wasn't up to scratch. Maybe it was the non-standard gameplay bringing my focus back to the fact that it was a video game.
- I believed the Ridwan pilots had to die
At the time anyway. See above. I did feel bad about it, but the line about them "dying usefully" was actually very reassuring. However, now having time to think back on it and read others' thoughts as well, I do think that they maybe didn't have to die. Could have possibly quarantined them, and I don't think it was necessary for their wreckage to sell the story. In fact, it was a little risky. I would be worried about the Tevs assuming it was an attack, not defense.
- Those wingmen were not my favorite people
I didn't actually check this. I was pretty well indifferent to my wingmen. All I can really remember about them was that Falconer didn't like me and didn't seem like a very ... natural? character (crazy murderer and enjoyed it, but knew she was and shouldn't). I knew Kovacs existed, and the last one whose name I never even fully remembered (Vid-something) was an amateur shrink and at one point revealed being a serial killer. I was barely aware of them as wingmen in missions also. I mostly felt like I was flying alone, and occasionally remembered "oh yeah, I can have the other guys kill this target while I do something else."
- I had no trouble pulling off the assassination
Also didn't actually select this one, but I was able to complete the mission rather easily. I did have a bit of trouble, but that was from me putzing around the first time and not mission difficulty, so I feel I fall into the spirit of this answer.
- I used the sensor flashbang during the assassination
In my successful run, I wasted the transport with my shrikes (THANK YOU for the "too close" warning, I definitely would have caught myself in the blast thinking of paveways) and sidhe, then popped off the flashbang and afterburned away. I COMPLETELY forgot about the decoy and the coasting out thing. I would have used the decoy, but who knows how successfully. I could have sworn I got shot a few times in the seconds after opening fire until I popped the flash bang, and maybe even a glancing blow after it wore off, but the debriefing said I never took fire.
- I hacked a Mjolnir during the assassination
My first attempt on this mission I did this, more out of the curiosity of finding all options than as my actual plan. I hacked it before identifying the transport. I had no idea this was going to reveal me and let the patrols absolutely waste me. However reading the other responses, it seems I'm supposed to be able to hack it without being detected, or at least not locked up completely. Did I miss something? The patrols were on me with radar lock immediately. I think the hack completed right as I blew up. I didn't try this again for the next attempt because of this.
- I destroyed the Gef reactor in 'One Future'
It wasn't my plan, but my capture transport was killed. I destroyed the MacDuff and I THOUGHT all the fighters and called in the transport. That is when I noticed the sentry guns around the habitat and thought I better clear those for the transport. While I was doing this, fighters killed my transport. Turned around just in time to see it explode. I still have no idea where those came from, because the only blips on my radar when I called it in were in front of me, and I never saw any fighters come from the asteroid and pass me on their way to the transport.
- 'One Future' didn't change my earlier decision about the Gef pilots
Not applicable.
- I loved flying the Custos-X
The first time, I HATED it. Absolutely despised flying a cap ship. Completely floundered trying to work the weapons and fly the damn thing at the same time, while the mission was under a time crunch and kept throwing **** at me and not giving me a chance to acclimate to the controls and added responsibility. Extreme task overload. There was no warm-up period. A few sentences in the briefing that really only conveyed to me "press the arrow keys to do stuff to the turrets" was all I had to go on. I cursed and swore at the mission design, and when I blew up I ragequit until the next day. At some point relatively early in the next playthrough, I figured it out and managed to fly it effectively. From that point on, I enjoyed it. "Love" is perhaps too strong a word, but I'm glad I got to fly it. I still think getting thrown in the deep end and learning by failure is bad design, but I'm less irate about it now.
- I was overwhelmed by 'Her Finest Hour'
Similar to the Custos. In the deep end, trial by fire, task overload. It took a couple of playthroughs to figure out just what the F**k was going on. Then a few more of trial-and-error strategy wise. This to me was the bigger annoyance. I read the briefing carefully (several times by the end) and paid as much attention to the wall of text as possible in-mission, including pausing frequently to read the message log. I did my absolute best to actually form a strategy and execute it to the best of my ability, and really enjoyed that aspect of it. But what it ended up as felt like trial-and-error until you find "the trick." I completed all the objectives I reasonably could and followed the prompts. The one thing I did NOT do was rely on my wingmen's invincibility as a crutch. I wouldn't send them after cruisers or stuff in the sentry gun screen, because they SHOULD get vaporized attacking these targets. This meant that I didn't kill the minelayers, because my artillery wouldn't target them (see top of post).
While I enjoyed the real-time strategy feeling behind the mission, doing it from the cockpit of a fighter with the comms menu was rather aggravating. After the break-in runs, it was reasonable and for the most part enjoyable (similar feelings to the Custos mission), up to the point of actually calling the attack. Then all hell broke loose. Trying to direct that traffic was a godawful nightmare. When you've got ten wings flying 5 different roles in a full on fleet battle, management just becomes impossible. The first time I got this far, I was actually calling shots with which wings I called in when, and trying to actually give them targets. This was way too slow and I thought I was getting my fighters mauled because they were trickling in instead of massing an attack. The Carthage escaped, but I was rather surprised in the debrief to be congratulated on keeping the fighters alive (I didn't think I did). The next time I got to the attack stage, I called in everything before trying to organize the attack. That fell apart quickly. I ended up just having to C-3-2 the Carthage and put artillery in free fire. It worked, but I lost most of my fighters. We needed to know that the reinforcements come in where you are. They might already, but they also need initial orders, and the player to know what those are specifically before calling them in. A coordinated attack is impossible from the comms menu.
- I took the Carthage's surrender
Purely tactical decision. I thought about the tech available to analyze, and even considered that given the rapid and miraculous repairs that seem to occur in the BP universe, it might even be put to use in some capacity for the UEF. I considered the fact that blowing the ship up might be a big morale shock to the GTVA, particularly civilians, but that would need to be one uninterrupted attack, not after a cease fire and offered surrender. That didn't seem like it would do anything but turn more civs to the GTVA's side. I had also already learned form the briefing or dreamscape or somewhere that Steele was already rolling to hard for it to be the political victory anymore. Morality factored ever so slightly in that I wasn't going to kill 10,000 crew without it giving a tactical advantage. The comment about 10,000 prisoners did make me think a bit.
- Placing turrets was tricky during 'Eyes in the Storm'
The arrow keys didn't work well at all. At one point I found myself unable to get unstuck from one of the platforms in a group, and finally gave up and deployed to that one even though it wasn't the exact one I wanted. I eventually discovered that the numpad keys worked much better, but I kept naturally returning to the arrow keys anyway. I never did figure out how to deploy the ECM and repair pods, and this drove me crazy. All else aside, I didn't really like the tower defense style gameplay.
- I wasn't bothered by 'Universal Truth'
It was a very good setup and great for revealing info, but it didn't creep me out in the slightest like 'Ken' did in act 1. Again, it was just completing the objectives of the game to me.
- I escaped 'Universal Truth' with my mind intact
I can follow instructions :P I ran when ken told me to, didn't wander aimlessly, and didn't turn around. hell, i didn't even use rear view in case that set it off.
To be honest, I thought this aspect of the mission might have been too easy. Until I thought about all the extra nodes and the fact you might be able to do something with them, I didn't think it was even possible to go insane (except by choosing so). I probed all the nodes as far as possible, and didn't seem threatened. I never got the sense I was "reaching" too far like it warned me about in the briefing. Maybe you could make it a little more tricky so that you have to actually be careful when probing for extra info in a future release? More temptation to stray off along the way? (This is what the extra nodes were for I'm guessing? Never even thought about it at the time, just went for ken in the middle. I actually thought they were there to make an arrow.
- I recognize the necessity of the Fedayeen
Don't really have anything to add to this. Except the thought that they seem to be so good at what they do that the UEF might be thrashing the GTVA if they were unleashed for the whole war.
- I have supported the UEF, and still do
The GTVA's reasons aren't completely asinine to me anymore, but still unjustified to me. They are still the cause of the whole damn mess. No matter how I look at this, I can't see how the GTVA is doing anything positive by going to war. They've got no idea what's going on with the Shivans and Vishnans. They just see something going on that they don't understand/like, and their response is "KILL IT!" NO ONE involved with the whole nagari mess has any way of knowing what the absolute truth is. Everyone's view is colored by the whoever is guiding them in the nagari world. You've got only their word they are who they say they are. The one thing that DOES seem to be more or less agreed upon is that aggression and destruction is the catalyst for calling the shivans/pissing off the vishnans into not caring about humans anymore. Conquering the UEF isn't going to help even if this doesn't doesn't put the shivans in full on purge mode.
- Humanity has a chance!
this probably wouldn't be a three part story otherwise.
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- I have supported the UEF, and still do
The GTVA's reasons aren't completely asinine to me anymore, but still unjustified to me. They are still the cause of the whole damn mess. No matter how I look at this, I can't see how the GTVA is doing anything positive by going to war. They've got no idea what's going on with the Shivans and Vishnans. They just see something going on that they don't understand/like, and their response is "KILL IT!" NO ONE involved with the whole nagari mess has any way of knowing what the absolute truth is. Everyone's view is colored by the whoever is guiding them in the nagari world. You've got only their word they are who they say they are. The one thing that DOES seem to be more or less agreed upon is that aggression and destruction is the catalyst for calling the shivans/pissing off the vishnans into not caring about humans anymore. Conquering the UEF isn't going to help even if this doesn't doesn't put the shivans in full on purge mode.
Full Disclosure, I was already a Tev Supporter, but your point here about how no one has the absolute truth and that views are colored by whoever is guiding them and what not - that actually had the opposite effect on me.
That strengthened my support for the GTVA.
We know that the the Beis, and the Elders are influenced by Vishans. Noemi by the Shivan's (or a Shivan proxy). Ditto for the HoL and perhaps Khonsu although Khonsu's influencer may be vishanan, who knows.
As far as I'm aware, the Security Council is clean, and they seem to be the only ones. They may be cold, calculating sons of *****es, but they saw a threat, and they took a course of action they deemed most likely to save humanity. Maybe it was a flawed but it was at least their own.
Keep in mind the reality the GTVA lived in, especially post Capella. Everything they do is informed by one basic imperative: survival. They don't trust anyone outside of the alliance.
Even if they knew that the Vishnans would spare them if there was no war, would they trust them? Would you? What guarantee would the Security Council have that the Vishnans would follow through on the agreement? The Elders may have bought it, but I don't think the security council ever would. Not after Capella.
My impression is that the Security Council hasn't given up on being able to survive the Shivans. Maybe they're wrong - but I can't fault them for having that faith in humanity. And so I understand where the motivation for the war came from. The UEF represented an unforgivable security threat. For a variety of reasons, some that were already apparent, and some that weren't yet clear but no less real.
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The wingmen in M21 can get knocked out of action, they're not precisely invincible. They can get temporarily vinced.
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how about the artillery targeting thing? am i not supposed to be able to target the cruisers and corvettes, or is something wrong?
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That's pretty odd, yeah. The artillery system breaks down completely part way through the mission for no discernable reason, but I've never heard of it failing to add the cruisers or corvettes as targets.
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maybe it's just i never tried targeting them before that. i left them in free-fire until the awacs were down, and then had them go after the mjolnirs first.
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maybe it's just i never tried targeting them before that. i left them in free-fire until the awacs were down, and then had them go after the mjolnirs first.
Yup, maybe its that. I've had no trouble targeting the Cruisers and Corvettes (even can target the Tankers).
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so can they actually shoot at things before the awacs coverage is cleared? the briefing and dialogue led me to believe no.
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They're able to use torpedoes but they're saving ammo on the mass drivers until they have cleaner targeting solutions.
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I think that should be made clearer in the briefing. However, that being said, the Artillery clearly fires a Torpedo salvo just a few seconds into the mission, that should be an enough clue that the AWACS ins't messing up the Torps.
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I think that should be made clearer in the briefing. However, that being said, the Artillery clearly fires a Torpedo salvo just a few seconds into the mission, that should be an enough clue that the AWACS ins't messing up the Torps.
if you are looking at them. i was busy reading text, issuing orders, or worrying about the karuna.
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The tactical priority gauge will tell you to designate artillery targets up front if you get a chance to look at it in time.
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I had no technical issues running Act 3.
Tenebra cooperated with me just fine, no hiccups, glitches, stutters, or anything else. Guess I just got lucky here.
I read most of the material in the dreamscape.
I'd been pretty heavily invested in the story since I read the supplemental material before WiH came out, and seeing a lot of those ideas being brought up and tied into the campaign itself was a real treat.
I sanitized the Gefs in 'Nothing is True.'
I thought about it for a second before I pressed the button, but I remembered that the op needed to have traces of Gef craft in order to be able to sell the frame-up, and I wanted the rift between the Terrans and the Vasudans to worsen at the time (not so sure after Universal Truth, but I'll get to that later). Also, thinking both as player and PC, I realized I wanted the Gefs dead, and I felt Laporte would probably not think twice about killing them, especially fresh from Delenda Est.
I believed the Ridwan pilots had to die.
I didn't like having to kill them, but I didn't see any other option that guaranteed operational security.
Vidaura was my favorite wingman.
Those wingmen were not my favorite people.
Of the other three pilots of Falcata wing, Vidaura was the one who I liked the most, but even so, I found all three pilots to be relatively bland--compared to Corey, Taylor, Simms, and Ng'Mei, Falcata wing was just...there. I didn't despise any of them. I just didn't really care about them one way or the other.
I had a horrible time on the assassination.
I used the decoy transport during the assassination.
I used the sensor flashbang during the assassination.
I could not for the life of me figure out what the hell I was doing on this mission. I understood the basic concept, but anything beyond "locate Henriksson's transport, kill her, and run" took me multiple tries to piece together--often after getting swamped by the escort. I really didn't feel like the briefing did a good job of explaining that mission at all, but eventually the pieces started falling into place, and seeing the hit come together and getting away scot-free was an awesome feeling.
I captured the Gef habitat in 'One Future.'
Initially, I planned to capture the colony-- again, the operation took precedence--saving the hab would mean less hostility from other Gef cells, and blowing it up would just drive them right to Steele. However, I'd managed to get the transport destroyed during my first run on this mission (too busy focusing on sentry guns rather than fending off Gef fighters), and decided to just blow the whole thing up, but I didn't have enough time and had to restart. After that, I was able to protect the transport and take the colony with time to spare.
'One Future' didn't change my earlier decision about the Gef pilots.
Operational security. The Vasudans needed to buy into the big lie, and that meant Gef debris.
I loved flying the Custos-X.
I was a little overwhelmed at first, but the controls were easy to understand, and even though the thing handles like a brick, having its capabilities and firepower more than made up for its shortcomings.
I adapted well to 'Her Finest Hour'.
I felt the (many) tactical options in HFH were much better presented than in Everything is Permitted. Having more things bound to hotkeys and the functions of everything being more obvious (designating targets for the artillery frigates, for instance) definitely made the mission much more comprehensible to me. It still took me a lot of tries to get this one right, but that was because I kept dying (which was always my own damn fault).
I took the Carthage's surrender.
This one was purely personal in the moment, but I felt it made for a good character arc for Laporte after the fact. The Carthage was pretty near and dear to me and, enemy or no, I couldn't bring myself to order the kill. After the fact, I felt that including the decision in Laporte's development as a character worked--her choosing to spare the Carthage marking her getting over the pain of what happened during Delenda Est and letting go of her desire for revenge.
I summoned the Toutatis in 'Her Finest Hour.'
Didn't even know it was possible to get her killed.
I had no trouble with the turret placement in 'Eyes in the Storm.'
Okay, first try I had a little trouble--because I was too stupid to realize the great big jump node with the glowing pathway showed me EXACTLY where everything was going to come from. After that, turret placement was easy.
I wasn't bothered by 'Universal Truth.'
Honestly, the mission was a little unnerving--seeing swarms of radar signatures following me after meeting Sam, for instance, but it wasn't like Transcend-level horrifying. It was impressive, though especially from a storytelling and FREDding perspective.
I recognize the necessity of the Fedayeen.
I see some shades of GTI in there, especially with their lack of accountability, but they struck me as being more sensible about that independence than GTI did. Plus, without their influence, I doubt the UEF would have lasted nearly as long as it has.
I have supported the UEF, and still do.
This one is complicated. When I first saw the 14th BG destroy the Renjian, it was, as far as I'm concerned, the GTVA's moral event horizon. After reading the supplementary material, I understood their reasons for starting the war, but I still felt it was wrong. Now, however, it's much simpler: if the GTVA wins, everyone's ****ed. Everything everyone has said/done suggests that the Vishans, one way or another, are the only thing keeping the Shivans off our asses, and if the Federation is destroyed, that protection goes with it. In another world, I might support the GTVA knowing what we do about Morpheus and the Vishnans, but not with the Shivans hanging over everything like a sword of Damocles.
Humanity has a chance.
In spite of everything, we're not dead yet, and, like I said, the Federation winning may give the Vishnans the leverage they need to convince the Shivans to hold off. At the very least, it will buy us time, and there's still another 1.4 campaigns left in this story.
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I think that should be made clearer in the briefing. However, that being said, the Artillery clearly fires a Torpedo salvo just a few seconds into the mission, that should be an enough clue that the AWACS ins't messing up the Torps.
if you are looking at them. i was busy reading text, issuing orders, or worrying about the karuna.
Looking at them? Lol! In my first two~three playthroughs of HFH, I actually flew right in the thick of the Apoc. salvo as it flew past me! I couldn't have felt more badass... :lol:
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Eh...? I swear some of my votes changed when I hit submit. GET OUT OF MY HEAD SAM
I had some technical issues running Act 3
I can't run Act 3 :(
But that's expected because my computer is old. Compatibility build fixed it.
I read most of the material in the dreamscape
All of it. Plus I rocked out. Why isn't rocking out part of the poll?
I released the Gefs in 'Nothing is True'
I figured staying true to the Fedayeen's word would improve relations with the Gefs at the same time as Gef relations with the GTVA were subverted. Risk of them blabbing to Steele aside.
I believed the Ridwan pilots had to die
Duh.
Kovacs was my favorite wingman
Those wingmen were not my favorite people
They were okay, but they lacked the depth of the AoA or WiH1 casts.
I had no trouble pulling off the assassination
I used the decoy transport during the assassination
Easy mission.
I captured the Gef habitat in 'One Future'
'One Future' didn't change my earlier decision about the Gef pilots
I loved flying the Custos-X
That was fun.
I adapted well to 'Her Finest Hour'
I took the Carthage's surrender
I feel like WiH2's story plays out something like the Baldur's Gate series, where keeping your inner monsters in check makes more narrative sense than the alternative. How long until Laporte learns Time Stop?
Placing turrets was tricky during 'Eyes in the Storm'
The controls are clunky and I ran out of countermeasures and I spent most of the time sitting on the repair drone which had kind of odd proximity detection by the way. Actual range measurements on the tanks would have helped.
I wasn't bothered by 'Universal Truth'
I escaped 'Universal Truth' with my mind intact (Vote intercepted and replaced with "I found the laughing man in 'Universal Truth'")
I recognize the necessity of the Fedayeen (Vote intercepted and replaced with "I'm uncomfortable with the Fedayeen")
Pretty much confirmed what I was thinking about AoA all along, which is that the Vishnans are evil manipulative cosmic horror bastards and that the Beis are out of their minds.
I changed sides from UEF to GTVA
Devil's in the details, so to speak.
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(...)the Vishnans are evil manipulative cosmic horror bastards and that the Beis are out of their minds.
What!? Don't you understand? The Vishnans stand for all that is good in the universe! If we fail them, they will abandon us to the plot twist!
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I had some technical issues running Act 3
Problems with the pilot files on the first playthrough.
No problems whatsoever on the second one, though.
I read most of the material in the dreamscape
"Most of" being the key words. Repeated clicking with random results was a bit unnerving...
I released the Gefs in 'Nothing is True'
I believed the Ridwan pilots had to die
Kovacs was my favorite wingman
With favorite meaning literally the one I favor the most, because
Those wingmen were not my favorite people
Not that I hated them, just didn't get particularly attached to them either.
I had no trouble pulling off the assassination
Well mostly. The hardest part for me was finding the right angle to scan those damn subsystems! :P
I used the sensor flashbang during the assassination
I hacked a Mjolnir during the assassination
I hacked it, but I had no idea I'd have to use it immediately. No complaints about that, though, I guess not being told everything is realistic.
I captured the Gef habitat in 'One Future'
'One Future' didn't change my earlier decision about the Gef pilots
'One Future' didn't, but I did change my mind. In the context of the first mission, letting them go is a bad idea.
I loved flying the Custos-X
... even though I thought I'd hate it! I think the mission is very nicely structured so that you don't get overwhelmed by it.
I adapted well to 'Her Finest Hour'
I guess you could say so. I died a lot, but I mostly knew what I was doing, even though I wasn't really sure about how would slaving the artillery to multiple targets work. In the end, I managed to complete all the secondary objectives (admittedly by exploiting heavily the Falcata wing's unkillability) and got away with <10% losses.
I took the Carthage's surrender
What else would I have done with it?
I had no trouble with the turret placement in 'Eyes in the Storm'
No, but I sucked horribly on the rest of the mission, no idea why. :(
I wasn't bothered by 'Universal Truth'
It was very, very atmospheric, though. Especially some of the alternate debriefings I saw in FRED.
I met the face of madness in 'Universal Truth'
Well I had to! But I have to say that contrary to the usual wanting to press the red button, this has a majestic setup and you really don't want to turn around.
"Run."
Brilliant!
I escaped 'Universal Truth' with my mind intact
I found the laughing man in 'Universal Truth'
On my second playthrough.
I recognize the necessity of the Fedayeen
I'm uncomfortable with the Fedayeen
I have supported the UEF, and still do
Kind of. The UEF has the right to sovereignty, but what the Elders are doing seems to be a bad idea, and the actions of the GTVA should be understandable even if you don't agree with them
Humanity has a chance!
Looking from behind the fourth wall I'd bet it does! Not that everybody dying after ten years of waiting wouldn't be an... interesting way to end a mod.
In-game, things look awfully grim.
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i should update my responses with my impressions after a second playthrough.
I had tech issues the second time through. I was unable to access any of the shivan information packets in Universal Truth. the downlink box at the top of the hud didn't even show up until i approached ken. i played this mission three or four times on the second campaign playthrough due to exploring different options (and failing as a result), and was unable to connect to the comm nodes every time. i was also unable to connect to some of the jump nodes in the bit with the 14th and bei, but not sure if that was by design. i understand not connecting to the ones that go red, but at least one of them that stayed green and had a jump portal open inside it didn't trigger. i forget the name, but i'm pretty sure it was the first one on the right (with the third prong on top). also, for whatever reason the stuttering in her finest hour was notably worse this time through.
the custos grew on me even more, and i've ended up playing that mission several times in the tech room. this time through, i let the gefs go. i probably still would have responded with it didn't make me regret my decision after just the playthrough, but after trying the custos mission on hard and insane through the tech room, i might revise that. i barely even noticed the extra presence on easy. it got a little bit harder on med, but still quite do-able. this time i successfully captured the habitat, but it sort of seemed like a lot of the dialogue/reactions later in the campaign was as though i blew it up. nothing outright referenced it, but the general impression that the rest of the gefs were pissed that i'd massacred kostan was still there.
i still had trouble using the mjolnir in the assassination. the first time i again got discovered and ****ed up by the patrols while waiting for it to hack, and the second time i didn't figure out how to use it in time before they regained control (i had no idea that was going to happen). i thought it was going to be used with the number keys again like all the other new gameplay type stuff. still never used the decoy. and this time, i KNOW i got shot, but the debriefing still said i never took any hits. does it base this on hull damage? it might be that they never punched through the shield, i didn't notice if that was the case or not (too busy trying to break lock and run).
eyes in the storm went better this time, now that i knew how to access the emp/repair turrets and remembered to use the numpad instead of arrow keys. however, i'm not sure the repair drone was working right. it never repaired me (though my hull was 80-something percent, does it do the same 70% thing as the support ship?) or my wingmen or nearby platforms that i could tell (their hulls were all red, i got them next to it by 'form on my wing', adjacent platform at 20% and never increased that i saw). if it's possible and reasonably easy to do, range indicators would be really useful in this mission, like a circle around the platform from the top-down view as you're selecting which tank to deploy. it would probably be distracting if they were present in-flight.
universal truth was creepier the second time through, but it still didn't bother me. i noticed things i hadn't before, like the shivan fighters circling in the first section. i knew the vishnan fighters were there the first time through, but i never actually saw them chasing me (i was just running straight to the exit). this time, i saw them and a couple of playthroughs they actually shot at me. i also don't remember seeing the semi-transparent sathanas images pop up during the chase bits through the nebula the first time. i also saw a LOT of stuff going on in the events page that i couldn't see in-mission. it's driving me a little bit nuts thinking i'm missing all this content/easter eggs.
still haven't found the laughing man. anyone want to throw a spoiler tagged hint at me? ;7
her finest hour went better for me this time, passing on my first try. but then again, i was probably on my 8th playthrough. this time i used the artillery from the start to kill the minelayers, got the mjolnirs pretty quickly, and completed all other objectives, except i don't think i got all the radar dishes. i had enough to call all wings in, with 7 points left over. one of the frigates did withdraw just before i called the attack. knowing they were coming in where i was definitely helped. i tried to direct traffic a bit better this time, since i felt i had more time and everything wasn't in immediate danger of getting shot down. i was still largely unsuccessful at this. i just didn't know what all the wings in the comms menu were. it would really be helpful if they were named "durga wing", "uriel saturation wing", "subsystem strike wing" etc. i ended up eventually sending everything after the carthage's engines again. i thought i did a good job of keeping everyone alive this time. at mission end, the box on the side said i had 41 units left on the field (then one died during the surrender dialogue somehow, leaving 40), but according to the debrief it was a near total loss of all fighters. what up with that?
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I think we ****ed up a lot of stuff with persistent vars - I don't think the casualty count is resetting between missions properly, or something. I don't know. For some reason the casualty counter is just totally ate up.
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i'll try it with a new pilot soon.
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I think we ****ed up a lot of stuff with persistent vars - I don't think the casualty count is resetting between missions properly, or something. I don't know. For some reason the casualty counter is just totally ate up.
This is my suspicion as well, but my CPU-choked computer is crashing every time I try to confirm. It should be trivial for someone to add a modify-variable to reset it at the beginning of the mission, though, right?
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Should be. Yet units-lost is a CPV and I could've sworn CPVs were only stored when the player moved successfully to a new mission.
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Had to kill the lights and shadows, some missions could run with all, others could only "cleanly" work with glow only. Pilot wise, no visible problems. Used Compatibility Package.
Blew up the Gef pilots. Ridwan pilot death unnecessary.
Made timing everything on the assassination (the hard part is just listening to the ship and getting the strength high enough to mark it as a valid target), beam first, transport as the beam was firing, and used the sensor burst to cover my escape. Escaped without being radar locked.
Killed the MacDuff, spared the habitat. Custos-X was a joy to fly.
Spammed the Support Craft, Shrikes and Ammo Packs in "Her Finest Hour." Let the Carthage and the Iolanthe live. Everyone else died (sabotaged the pulse turret grid, kept the artillery pressure on). Third Fleet Capital Elements remained intact.
Turret placement was not bad, but the problem was that I had to keep repeatedly hitting the arrow keys (not sure if the intent was to a grid-like movement effect, I was thinking in such an open world, cursor movement should be more fluid).
Survived intact in Universal Truth, but had to kill all the lighting effects minus glow. Was a genuine shock. Still on the side of the Feds. Humanity has one chance to survive the ****ed up design of the Old Ones. The Alliance has to stop being complete pricks against Zodkind.
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So I'm finally through Act III (after killing two pilots trying to get through the original WiH-release again, I decided to fast-track it on the weekend)...
(In my defense I didn't read through this topic, so there might be repetitions in my answers)
I read most of the material in the dreamscape
However the wingmen became a blur after a while ... Maybe it is because they didn't get much of personal introduction to distinguish them by - voice acting or maybe some theme music for each would help to make them more recknognizable
I sanitized the Gefs in 'Nothing is True'
At the time I though it was imperative to the mission that GEF wreckage was found and so I blew them up (see my answer on the Fedayeen) ... I regret that decision after 'meetinig' Awhireinga Greenfly in the dreamscape. (see my answer on GTVA/UEF alligance)
I don't think the Ridwan pilots had to die
... but send my wingmen to take them down; I simply saw no way to complete the mission without leaving the wing alive at the time of the mission. I feel bad about making that call.
I used the decoy transport during the assassination
I used the sensor flashbang during the assassination
I hacked a Mjolnir during the assassination
I called the decoy so I could disable the transport, used the flashbang to dodge GTVA patrols after that and used the Mjolnir to finish the job.
I captured the Gef habitat in 'One Future'
Didn't realize there was a way to blow it up. Didn't have the time (mission finished with 4 seconds left on the clock) to check out the opening on the asteroid.
'One Future' didn't change my earlier decision about the Gef pilots
See above, the mission didn't but the interaction with Greenfly did.
I loved flying the Custos-X
While I had a bit of problem with the controls for the Custos-X, I liked flying it. Unlike with the turrets in "Eyes in the Storm" the controls were explained in a way that I could figure out all the commands with my personalized keybindings.
I adapted well to 'Her Finest Hour'
Except for a not noticing that I had to select the elements of the strike team on the first try.
I took the Carthage's surrender
Destroying the ship wasn't mission critical, also though capture of GTVA experimental tech (or the remains there of; destruction-in-case-of-capture-protocolls are rather strict) might prolong the war and allow for a differnt solution than GTVA or UEF victory (see GTVA/UEF alligance)
Placing turrets was tricky during 'Eyes in the Storm'
Unlike with the Custos-X I had a hard time figuring out which controls I needed to make it work. Maybe I misread something but still I had to call up the reference chart.pdf that came with the GoG version to figure out which keys to bind for the turret placement to work. After control issues were resolved everything went smooth.
I escaped 'Universal Truth' with my mind intact
... with LaPorte's mind intact.
I really though I would loose the sanity part when I couldn't resist probing Ken for the answers on the Shivans. But then during the scene with the Visnans I realized I was running on borrowed time so really hurried to get to safety.
Other than that, "Universal Truth" did try to confirm my initial suspicions about the Vishnans that I had since "Ken" but after thinking it over I'm not convinced what was provided in "Universal Truth" can be accepted as solid fact, just like all the glimpses in "Ken".
The revelation about Ken was unexpected but it made perfect sense. Did nothing to lower my guard towards Ken however, I'm still expecting some motive other than those provided during "Universal Truth" to surface as the story develops.
I recognize the necessity of the Fedayeen
Not hard for me as I'm a firm believer in the idea that for a society to hold values and to remain true to these values, these values must at least be questioned if not opposed by members of said society. Challenging the values of society will either affirm said values by justifing their value again and again or reveal them as useless and obsolete.
Another idea I loathe to submit to is that in times of crisis it's necessary for a set of members of a society to break with their values for the common good and leaving other members of the society blameless for the acts that need to be done.
While I hate to affirm this particular brand of reasoning, the necessity to limit the blame for normally socially undesirable conduct to the pepetrators and not let it expand to all who would benefit form it, is given due to the fact that otherwise one would have to blame ALL beneficiaries of said conduct which would include coming generations who by accident of birth never had a chance to impact a course of events that is History to them.
Humanity is doomed! / Humanity has a chance!
That remains to be seen. Silently awaiting if going to be crossed by Ken but I know that humanity has no future with the UEF/Vishnans or the GTVA either.
I can't supported the UEF or the GTVA
My support for the GTVA fell at the end of AoA when the war started as I couldn't quite wrap my head around the why. In "Ken" I got to a peek into the paranoia that gripped the GTVA but since I don't fully trust Ken I'm still skeptical to accept anything that happened in "Ken" as fact (which is what keeps me from pitying Steele).
Even if I considered the glimpse in "Ken" to be fact, I can't wholeheartly support the GTVA for seeing war on Sol as the only option to combat the Vishnan influence on humanity.
My support for the UEF which was originally very strong got a huge hit in "Ken" and finally fell about "For the Wrong Reasons" when an Elder openly admited to visions guiding the Elders. At that point, even if all the scepticsm towards information gained from Ken I couldn't bring myself to see the UEF as victims of the GTVA, as certainly an outside party had orchistraded these events and the UEF Elders had been its willing and unquestioning accomplices.
However there is a faction in Sol I would support: GEF Greenfly...
What was to be seen of their transhumanist world more than just intrigued me. Maybe it's the appearently inherent materialism in their views ("Foundries. Vats. Kind of the same. Make the ships. Make me.") that speaks to me as someone who grew up in an intellectual envoirment that still treasures an unnecessary mind/matter-dualism... maybe there is more I can't put my finger on just yet... but as it stands now I'm willing to throw my lot in with them rather than any other faction involved in the war in Sol.
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For some reason, Mssion 2 and onwards, I'm still getting stutters every 5-6 seconds - very annoying, although I have an enthusiast setup.
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I had no technical issues running Act 3
Really hard to with the machine I used.
I read most of the material in the dreamscape
By "most" one should read "more than half, less than the total". Easily bored by the content, and this has to do with the nihillistic above-human scope of the psychological environment, but also with the pretensious bastard I was playing. What a bore Laporte is, always judging others, daring to rate or qualify even the nature of the Fedayeen's alliance with the Hammer of Light to the very HoL agents. Having beared my own "character" saying silly, presumptuous, too self-aware words with practically everyone (and miraculously leaving the conversations without no one shouting a "**** you Laporte who dafuq you think you are?"), I always reached a point where I thought "ok, enough of this ****, let's see the next mission".
I sanitized the Gefs in 'Nothing is True'
Emotionally easy thing to do. They were bastards behaving like scoundrels, and it seemed a really bad idea letting them go with grievances or data against me.
I don't think the Ridwan pilots had to die
Not exactly. They probably had to, but the plot point didn't click on me. I *got* the plot point, but it seemed convoluted. Why would anyone believe the story that the UEF tried to "save" the Vasudans from the GEF, specially after the events in WiH 1? Why wouldn't they believe the exact opposite? It seemed a risk to include the UEF fighters in the scam, a risk that wasn't even considered by the Fedayeen, etc. I was unconvinced by the presentation.
Those wingmen were not my favorite people
At first I thought "Man, of course I don't like these guys, I've only seen them in one act". But now I know it's not about that at all. Fact is, Laporte is departing humanity and entering a place of non-existent morality apart from zeros and ones. She's becoming a machine. And the Fedayeen (and her fighter mates) are part of her conversion. The conversations are all about how she's still a human being and how that might be a problem in the missions going forward. After a while, they commend Laporte for becoming as psychopathic as they already are.
Are we supposed to create a bond with these psychopaths? Not even in principle! Having left humanity behind, the thought of even creating bonds with pseudo-humans like Kovacs et al is obsolete. I'd have bonded with the UEF fighters that died mercilessly in mission 1. Not with these psychopaths.
I had no trouble pulling off the assassination
That one and zero was too important to **** up with some idiotic late night moral compass. There was no emotional bond to aggreviate matters. A lot harder would have been to assassinate Byrne for instance. That would have been hard. To assassinate someone we were "acquainted to" just a page ago (and already portrayed as a traitor) wasn't even a question.
I hacked a Mjolnir during the assassination
Coz I'm lazy. And coz I was fragged every time I tried to kill it conventionally (later I learned it had to do with the insane-level RoF bug).
I destroyed the Gef reactor in 'One Future'
Not easy to notice the entrance. At first I tried to destroy the Destroyer and only then worry about the asteroid. I always failed the mission because those lazy marines were too slow and incompetent, so I tried to escalate the speed in which I obliterated the Destroyer to no avail. Then Battuta pointed me that I should just go into the asteroid, not wait for the marines. Next attempt I completely ignored the destroyer and went directly to the core, bombed everything and then faced the destroyer.
'One Future' didn't change my earlier decision about the Gef pilots
Nope.
I loved flying the Custos-X
Except for those first minutes of the first attempts where I was like "OMFG lots of missiles going my way, WTF should I do, press what? Manage what? Wait, what did you sa.. FUUUUUUU..."
Much has been already said about the complete lack of a learning curve in WiH act 3.
I was overwhelmed by 'Her Finest Hour'
I just didn't know what to do and how to do anything.
Until I learned how to manage the artillery. Then my mind clicked. I was trying too hard to go around my wingmates doing everything I told them to do with them. Except they are invincible and I am not, so that wasn't good. Only when I became cynical about the game itself, and said to myself "the hell with the immersion, I'm gonna sit here and command everyone to work for me", I started to see real results (finished the level right at the first attempt).
So it was really really hard until I figured the level out. Then it was easy. Still demanding, but manageable even for a lame player like me.
I took the Carthage's surrender
Needless murder is needless murder.
I had no trouble with the turret placement in 'Eyes in the Storm'
Some trouble with the controls, the zoom, etc., but I'm used to ****ty twitchy interfaces.
'Universal Truth' really freaked me out
In a good way. When I heard "Requiem" I knew I was seeing a bloody work of art. And the shivan cutscenes, omg. Just amazing.
I recognize the necessity of the Fedayeen
Desperate times need amoral nihillistic bastards who will do anything necessary to get things done. A somewhat fascistic 24-like idea, but I wasn't too bothered by it. The sheer vertigo of the existence of culling "Gods" who will wipe you out if they feel like it shatters the liberal hippie residing inside of me. We are in the verge of being culled, of being wiped out. No time to pander to silly emotions and medieval moralities.
"I have no sides"
I haven't. Neither with the GTVA nor with the UEF. Slightly numbed at that question.
Humanity has a chance!
Doesn't feel like it though. The main problem with WiH act 3 is that it doesn't convey the drama and the tension correctly. We know we have to run, but we don't understand why and where to. The setting is unclear, the purpose hidden. I'm sure this is why BP team was reluctant to release only Act 3.
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I had some technical issues running Act 3
I had FS2_open crash on me a few times for no discernible reason. It didn't seem to be mission related though since reloading I could continue playing just fine.
I read most of the material in the dreamscape
But I have played many RPGs, everyone knows you always talk to everyone before moving on!
I think some ability to choose conversation options might be appropriate in here, since the campaign is all about kind of defining who Laporte is amongst the Fedayeen.
I sanitized the Gefs in 'Nothing is True'
This mission is kind of a killer though if you don't do it right, so I went through it so many times I tended to change which options I picked for them. I ended up on "sanitize" because if you go viral strike on the AWACS they just hang around complaining they're not going to do anything except attack the AWACS. Since they've all got "compliance devices" under their seats, this seemed problematic - I should've been able to tell them to attack or I'd blow them up anyway.
I don't think the Ridwan pilots had to die
It doesn't quite come across that they've got to go to protect the mission I think. Coming across a half-blown up Vasudan convoy and a bunch of (by that time) Gef wreckage seems like it makes the point. Of course by that time in the mission the timer was getting low and it's not easy to catch them either so it's a bit hard to follow the dialogue without VAing.
Those wingmen were not my favorite people
On the other hand, I don't think they need to be. But this might be a symptom of needing some VA'ing for me to really form a strong opinion about them.
I had no trouble pulling off the assassination
Once I knew how the mission worked - it's not explained well enough in the briefings or conveyed in the mission mechanics. It was hard to judge how much time I had to actually do it, and it wasn't clear I had to positively identify the shuttle to the game before I attacked - you can pretty much determine which ship the Elder is on before you get the yellow target reticle that let's you actually attack. If the mission briefing said something like "we're loading a heuristic sensor program into your ship's computer. You'll need to close on the transport to verify the Elder's identity. Once it's positively confirmed her presence, you may engage." then it would've been much clearer that I can't just say "right it's clearly that one" and blow it away.
I also couldn't figure out how the Mjolnir targeting actually worked.
I captured the Gef habitat in 'One Future'
Once I realized I could use my ship to just cover the transport while it moved in it was pretty easy to do. This would be more obvious if the transport would request cover from the sentry gun network, which is on the only real threat to it.
'One Future' didn't change my earlier decision about the Gef pilots
It's not really clear what I lost. I haven't tried it with not blowing them up.
I loved flying the Custos-X
Cap-ships are fun to fly, though I still find managing turrets is a bit tricky. It feels like really I need to be able to fly the cap-ship from a much further back 3rd person perspective so I can get a better picture of whats around me and shooting at me.
I adapted well to 'Her Finest Hour
Loved this mission. The main issue I had (which I had in a lot of other places too) was it took me just forever to realize that my stealth fighter could safely attack and disengage.
One big problem I had was that it wasn't clear the capture/destroy decision would be made for me, so I wasted a lot of ships fighting the support craft/destroying turrets and ignoring the Carthage the first time round (pretty much all of them). When replaying it, even though this time I got all the ships out successfully (ordered them to depart once the Carthage was down) the ship-loss counter didn't seem to reset properly (still reported losses being total).
Placing turrets was tricky during 'Eyes in the Storm'
I couldn't find the list of support turrets initially. There didn't seem to be much point to selective deployment either vs. spamming them all as soon as you could in a nice tight grid to fight that second wave. The Tev's also seem a bit quick to start pounding on the gas station if you don't engage them.
I wasn't bothered by 'Universal Truth'
But I loved the mission, and the GD did freak me out when it shows up.
I had a big problem with Universal Truth though - the jump nodes throughout the whole game have been showing up as grey colored rather then green, so they were nigh impossible to see. The mission is also very long without any checkpoints or anything, so if you get lost while looking for the way out it gets fairly irritating having to loop through all that dialogue again. I also thought the sensor distortion on the nebula when you're talking to Ken was unnecessary, since it just makes it hard to find him/it.
I'm uncomfortable with the Fedayeen
In the sense that they're kind of an over-reaction from Ubuntu. GTVA SoC seem like level-headed intelligence spooks. The Fedayeen are mixing up religion/intelligence gathering and transhumanism. I get why Laporte is there, but they certainly don't seem like the right answer.
I changed sides from UEF to GTVA
Although it's tricky to say really. The GTVA seem's like the right answer to the galaxy's big problems, but the initial invasion still feels like an overreaction. I definitely don't hate Steele though - he's an effective commander. My Laporte definitely wouldn't kill him in the end, since as she states - she learned from the best and Steele is amongst them.
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the jump nodes throughout the whole game have been showing up as grey colored rather then green, so they were nigh impossible to see.
You should try to reproduce with retail assets and post a Mantis report - this sounds like a serious issue and I've never heard anyone having this problem before.
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I had some technical issues running Act 3
But after some trial and error and experimenting with different builds I was able to beat it.
I read most of the material in the dreamscape
It was fairly interesting.
I released the Gefs in 'Nothing is True'
I was in a good mood when I played the mission.
I used the sensor flashbang during the assassination
I loved flying the Custos-X
I was overwhelmed by 'Her Finest Hour'
I beat it, but wow that was a lot to do. ;)
I took the Carthage's surrender
As a GTVA supporter, I had to choose the lesser of two evils here.
Placing turrets was tricky during 'Eyes in the Storm'
I had to use the "5X fail-skip" on this mission unfortunately.
I wasn't bothered by 'Universal Truth'
I have supported the GTVA, and still do
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-- I had some technical difficulties running Act 3
It took me about a half hour to get it up and running. Also, the left control key seems to do absolutely nothing in the turret-placement mission.
-- I read most of the material in the Dreamscape
Seriously, this place is awesome beyond awesome. Some of this stuff is endlessly inspiring.
-- I released the Gefs
...Mainly because I was too preoccupied blowing up tankers to press more keys.
-- I believe the Ridwan pilots had to die
Seriously, who the f*** thought it was a good idea to fly into a Gef vs. Vasudan showdown? How morbidly idealistic does the Ridwan's captain have to be to authorize that sortie? You expect the Zods to side with the UEF or something? Your mere presence REINFORCES the idea that the UEF and Gefs are working together. While you're at it, why not wish for a jetpack, a teleporter, and a UEF Sathanas?
-- Falconer was my favorite wingman
Seriously this guy/girl/whatever is awesome. It's so rare to see such a pure psychopath so well fleshed out.
-- I had no trouble pulling off the assassination
It wasn't difficult, it just required WAY too much afterburner.
-- I hacked a Mjolnir during the assassination
I did it, because I wanted to make ALL the Tevs curse at their consoles. SIMULTANEOUSLY.
-- I destroyed the Gef reactor
Yeah, you're trying to cause a mass extinction event by warping a chunk of cometary ice toward Earth? #1 on my list of things to avoid is a duel with a warship ten times my size.
-- I loved flying the Custos-X
Spew ALL the chaff!
-- I was overwhelmed by 'Her Finest Hour'
Those turrets...those damn turrets...spewing blue streams of anti-fighter death...
-- I destroyed the Carthage
At first, I was going to press the button to accept surrender. Unfortunately, the surrender option was 'sit here and wait'. Then I noticed her escorts cutting Calder's air wing to shreds. That wasn't very nice.
-- Placing turrets was tricky
I'm stuck on this mission because I cannot figure out how to do it. Left control does nothing when I press it.
-- I'm uncomfortable with the Fedayeen
Why is it so absolutely disastrous to freely and openly admit 'Psychopaths have a purpose in a utopian society'? Ubuntu should be completely okay with this. If transparency would destroy Ubuntu, then so be it. The GTVA may be backstabbing hypocrites, but the UEF isn't much better.
-- I changed sides from UEF to GTVA Shivans
Can I go join the Shivans now? UEF and GTVA alike need to be purged from the galaxy. The grand, cosmic psychopaths need to show up and clean house. They're like a more pure and focused version of the Fedayeen, minus all the black-ops-secrecy BS.
-- Humanity is doomed!
The Shivans probably have enough juggernauts to shock-jump every GTVA and UEF destroyer, simultaneously. From a sheer planet-glassing perspective...I would not be surprised if they could burn the humans from the cosmos in >24 hours. Zods are okay though, they can stay. WTB Shivan-Zod Alliance.
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We still doing this? Looks like it. I probably don't have unique perspectives, but it's good etiquette to share my choices, so here we go.
I had no technical issues running Act 3.
-I did have to tweak my keybindings a bit to get the capship controls working properly in 'One Future', but that's not your problem.
I read most of the material in the dreamscape.
-'nuff said. I love BP's backstory and technical details, so the dreamscape was a really nice treat. Shame I couldn't interact with the various firewalls, though.
I sanitized the Gefs in 'Nothing is True'.
-I decided I didn't want them potentially jeopardizing that and other operations. Didn't feel bad about it, though.
I believed the Ridwan pilots had to die.
-Didn't actually tick this one because I answered the survey late at night and derped. This one I felt bad about, but again- I couldn't risk the operation.
(No vote on wingman preference)
-It's been a while, but none of the wingmen's personalities really stuck with me. Could just be my memory fading on me, though.
(Write-in) I needed a few tries to make the assassination work.
I used the decoy transport during the assassination.
I used the sensor flashbang during the assassination.
-I did try to hack a Mjolnir, but I wound up bailing because of the nosy patrol fighters. Ultimately, I just crippled the target from afar, then snuck in close and finished it off when the heat cleared. Once the deed was done, I triggered the sensor flashbang and drifted away giggling like a little girl.
One thing I would have appreciated regarding the items would be a little more explanation of how they were going to work. I expected the sensor flashbang to go off instantly, for example. Had I known that it needed time to charge up, I would have executed my plan a bit differently.
I captured the Gef habitat in 'One Future'.
'One Future' didn't change my earlier decision about the Gef pilots.
I loved flying the Custos-X.
-Barely. On the attempt that I succeeded, I thought for sure I had blown it. I guess 'One Future' is a little more lenient if the transport has already docked, since I was technically out of time for at least a full minute.
-Nope. Still don't feel bad about toasting the Gef pilots. To be fair, I do think the Gefs as a faction are a lot more interesting now, but the pilots from earlier still had the misfortune of being in the wrong place. And that place would be their fighters with their lives in my cruel hands.
-I would have appreciated having a little time to get used to the Custos-X. ("The Blade Itself!" Bite me.) But, once I got used to flying it, I had a great time. I'm quite used to more sluggish ships since I've played a lot of X3 in my non-FS flight time.
I was overwhelmed by 'Her Finest Hour'.
I destroyed the Carthage.
(Can't remember if I summoned the Touatis)
-A review at the briefing's end would have been really nice. Once I put about four false starts into it, things began to fall into place, but I was still a little aggravated that it took that long just to figure out what I needed to do.
-Carthago delenda est! The Tevs would have done the same if the situation were reversed. I did feel a shred of remorse since I don't think Admiral Lopez was a *bad* woman, but again- bad day to be my enemy. The previous points are really after-the-fact justification for a decision I made through emotion. The ending of "Delenda Est" in Act 2 is one of the very few times I've really been emotionally moved by a video game, and unfortunately for the Carthage, I was moved to hatred.
-Also, as an aside, I want to say I was a little frustrated by the heavy casualties my strike force took. I got just about the maximal force, ticked all the boxes, crippled everything I could, and the strike force still got trashed pretty hard, particularly the Custos...es. This bothers me because the force consisted of, what, almost 40 combat spacecraft? Surely that many bombers and warships could pluck the turrets from a crippled destroyer and fend off its escorts with little trouble, right?
I had no trouble with the turret placement in 'Eyes in the Storm'.
-First attempt was a wash since I didn't realize that there was no real advantage to holding some turrets back. After that, the mission was a blast.
I wasn't bothered by 'Universal Truth'.
I escaped 'Universal Truth' with my mind intact.
-Staring into the abyss is something of a hobby of mine. 'Universal Truth' was great.
-Probably not by much, but I did.
I recognize the necessity of the Fedayeen.
-Not much to add here. The UEF would probably be utterly screwed without such a merciless organization. Such as it is now, the UEF has a fighting chance.
I have supported the GTVA, and still do.
Humanity has a chance!
-Now here's where things get interesting. The GTVA's motivations are of the "unfortunate, but necessary" brand of forceful re-unification. The Tevs have done some bad, bad things during the war, even managing to seriously piss me off personally. That said, I *must* support them because the GTVA as an overall faction seems to be less affected by Shivan or Vishnan interference (how badly tainted the HoL guys are remains to be seen). Moreover, I simply feel that the GTVA has a better grasp on how apparently hostile the outside universe is, and I think they're better-prepared to face it.
-I'm honestly not sure about this one, but I'd rather stay hopeful. Vishnan motivations are anything but clear, and I'm not at all comfortable with humanity existing so transparently at the whim of trans-dimensional alien powers. Humanity is probably screwed if even a Second Incursion-level fleet comes knocking for a demolition tour, but dying on our own terms would grate me far less than existing as pawns of the Vishnans.
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I had some technical issues running Act 3
The ships in her finest hour refused targets after a while, also stutters but that's probably just my PC being too bad for this mass of ships :D
I read most of the material in the dreamscape
Read ALL the things!
I found the randomising to be hugely annoying and just bad design tbh.
I sanitized the Gefs in 'Nothing is True'
I don't understand why people say releasing them wouldn't matter 'cause no one would believe them.
They're allied to Steele so he has reason to at least listen to their version. And he knows the Fedayeen and probably wouldn't put such a false flag operation past them.
The whole point of the mission is to drive a wedge between the two and when you're trying to do that you really shouldn't let em live to tell the truth.
But even if this wasn't the case there is simply no reason to let them live. The Gefs are enemies and the pilots + fighter crafts a military asset to them. A minor one, true, but then again all the effort required is a button push...
I don't think the Ridwan pilots had to die
Uups looks like I remembered this wrong, they actually come in when you're still fighting and identify you as Fedayeen. Of course they have to die in this case.
Those wingmen were not my favorite people
Didn't really relate to them like to the wargods, they just kinda blended together.
I had no trouble pulling off the assassination
I hacked a Mjolnir during the assassination
Easy, first try without a scratch. Well second try technically as I wanted to hear the whole conversation and just sat there the first time :p
I captured the Gef habitat in 'One Future'
No reason to kill them all, they're gonna be removed as a threat with both options.
'One Future' didn't change my earlier decision about the Gef pilots
Why would it?
I loved flying the Custos-X
Nice. I only tried The Blade Itself once and sucked and then didn't want to anymore but this one was good. I should do the Blade again :D
I was overwhelmed by 'Her Finest Hour'
This one was a *****!
After getting killed one or two times I at least got far enough to get Toutatis Serkr'd :p
Then managed to win but had too high losses for my liking so restart. Then it took me a few times to win again... with more losses then last time :doubt:
Said '**** it' and moved on.
I took the Carthage's surrender
Of course I did.
It's an important asset with probably lots of usable/researchable material.
I find Laporte's desire for vengeance HUGELY annoying and making her unlikeable. After all it primarily stems for the destruction of the Wargods rather than Luna.
So she hates the GTVA with for the horrible crime of... destroying enemy military forces in a war?
With enough bloodlust that she considers the slaughter of surrendering enemies... The Wargods never attempted to surrender.
I summoned the Toutatis in 'Her Finest Hour'
I got the Toutatis killed by Serkr in 'Her Finest Hour'
see above
I had no trouble with the turret placement in 'Eyes in the Storm'
Haha, the things you can mod in!
I wasn't bothered by 'Universal Truth'
Well it was kinda cool at least the Vishnans attacking part.
I met the face of madness in 'Universal Truth'
Is that something special or just gameovers? I got these, nice that there's different results of Laporte going crazy.
I escaped 'Universal Truth' with my mind intact
Again not sure if there's another way to win or this option is intended for no game-over madness.
In any case I did it eventually so I picked it :p
I recognize the necessity of the Fedayeen
Someone's gotta do it.
I have supported the GTVA, and still do
I never trusted the Vishnans, turns out I was right :p
Plus if anyone can safe mankind it's Steele so don't kill him! :O
But the UEF society and prosperity sure is nice. The GTVA can adopt Ubuntu once Steele has dealt with the Shivans, Vishnans and whatever other aliens come crawling out of their black-hole :nod:
Humanity has a chance!
Of course it has... it's a game :p
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It's been awhile since I played. I *think* this is all correct.
I had no technical issues running Act 3
It ran very well!
I read most of the material in the dreamscape
It's one of the reasons I play BP. The story is immersive.
I released the Gefs in 'Nothing is True'
I couldn't justify murdering them.
I don't think the Ridwan pilots had to die
I had my wingmates kill them because I thought there was no choice in the matter. I didn't want to do it myself.
Vidaura was my favorite wingman
I really like this person. Looks out for me, even if she is a serial killer. Also made me think that it'd be nice if real life governments can retrain serial killers into productive people in society.
I had no trouble pulling off the assassination
Assassination was cake and unlike the Gefs, well deserved. The hardest part was being inside the explosion radius of the transport. I had less than 10% and was running for my life after I destroyed the transport. Didn't think it'd hurt that much... jumped out easily enough, though. Tev fighters couldn't outrun me.
I pulled that assassination off with NO ITEMS
It was by accident. After the briefing, I forgot about the items I had. Didn't even see Mjolnirs. Just focused on scanning the sucker and blowing her to smithereens.
I captured the Gef habitat in 'One Future'
Can't justify destroying the habitat. It's good for the UEF and good for humanity. Also, I'm not a monster.
'One Future' didn't change my earlier decision about the Gef pilots
Killing those who wanted to kill me is okay, even if more people had to die. Killing the Gef fighters who helped me... can't do it.
I loved flying the Custos-X
It was fun. I hated the primary weapon when the destroyer was moving. It wasn't until I read the threads that I realized that there was auto-aim. Made so much sense why I was missing everytime.
I was overwhelmed by 'Her Finest Hour'
I was doing everything right! And then I read the Wiki... I didn't realize I could disable the corvettes. Once that happened, the game was cake. I'm an idiot.
I took the Carthage's surrender
We got a free destroyer, and Anita Lopez is a good person on the wrong side of the war.
I summoned the Toutatis in 'Her Finest Hour'
A few playthrough in, I summoned the Toutatis. Did not end well...
I got the Toutatis killed by Serkr in 'Her Finest Hour'
:(
I had no trouble with the turret placement in 'Eyes in the Storm'
You could see the paths. It was pretty easy. Only reading the forum did I know that I could do nothing and still win. I was very active.
'Universal Truth' really freaked me out
Shivan faces... Vishnan faces... I'm a baby.
I escaped 'Universal Truth' with my mind intact
I failed the first time because I didn't see Vishnans chasing after me. The next playthrough I was very successful.
I recognize the necessity of the Fedayeen
They do what the UEF can't. Since the Fedayeen are completely autonomous, the UEF has not done anything wrong yet. This allows the UEF to be the answer to the Shivans... if the GTVA didn't get involved.
I have supported the UEF, and still do
Clearly, I cannot count on the Vishnans. I don't think that Ken has my interest in mind, either. Still, the UEF is the future for humanity, considering what they have done to the population on Earth.
Humanity has a chance!
Always! I pray that Ken is not an asshole.
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I had technical issues running Act III
HFH had the artillery bug and the casualties debriefing bug, EitS had the flying-out-of-the-map bug. I got around them though.
I read most of the material in the Dreamscape
And by most I mean all. The story and characters wouldn't have made sense other wise. Very creative, guys!
I released the Gefs in "Nothing is True".
Whatever situations the Fedayeen threw me into, I was determined to stick to the straight and narrow whenever I had a choice. Two Gef pilots wouldn't cost us the war... would they? Anyway, it did me some good to hear Kukri 2 shout, "Gaia bless you!" as he left.
EDIT: I heard one of the Gef pilots says, "Ghanna, I'm coming home!" if released. Isn't Ghanna Sergei's daughter? The Hostage? Implying that her husband was a Prisoner of the Fedayeen all the way back in act one, since he clearly didn't know she was dead/captured. Ouch.
I don't think the Ridwan pilots had to die.
It took me a while to sort out the morals of what we were doing on that mission. The attack itself? Perfectly legit strike on enemy forces. Blaming it on the Gefs... that's pushing it, but Kostadin Pilots really did attack the convoy, UEF pilots really did try and help the Vasudans, and MacDuff really was cheating Steele, even if not in that instance. You could argue that we didn't lie, we just didn't speak up. It's a tough question, and I'm not sure of the answer. But killing allied pilots in cold blood was wrong. We should have tried SOMETHING; identifying ourselves and telling them to keep mum, or even demanding that they come to the Masyaf and sit out the war. We might not have succeeded, but good ends don't justify evil means. I wouldn't do it myself, so Falconer did the job.
Kovacs was my favorite wingman
Falconer, quite frankly, was creepy. I couldn't make heads or tails of Viduara. Kovacs was no serial killer, just a shell-shocked veteran who wouldn't give up. While he might not have been as enthusiastic about Laporte as Viduara, he recognized talent when he saw it (much faster than Falconer).
I had a horrible time with that assassination
The problem was I did understand the "com spike" feature. I thougt I had to "guess" which transport had the traitor by watching the comms meter, with the result that I would jump the nearest transport as soon as I had a spike. Once some fellow players explained that it would tell me when I had found it...
I pulled that assassination off with NO ITEMS
Over the weekend I'm gonna replay that mission and try a more finesse approach. As it was, I had scanned all the station's subsystems, but once I found the transport I just jumped it. Long-range Shrikes to the engines, some escort dodging, a Gattler burst, more dodging, alt-J and it was done. Now Steele, THAT'S a legit stealth attack.
I captured the Gef habitat in "One Future"
Again, Straight and Narrow. I highly doubt that the people on board the habitat were happy with MacDuff's plans (I noticed MacDuff himself wasn't going to die for Gaia, oh no. HE had to command the operation from the safety of his superdestroyer.)
"One Future" didn't change my mind about the Gef pilots
If anything, I was vindicated that they hadn't persuaded Steele. After fighting the Moreena Macduff, two extra cruisers were easy as cake- my Arquebus cut through them like butter.
I loved flying the Custos-X
It was an awesome cross between the Katana in "The Blade Itself" and a normal strikecraft. Tell me it comes back in part 3! Please? :D )
I adapted well to "Her Finest Hour"
And I thought you guys wouldn't be able to top "One Future". WOW. I actually did take notes on the briefing and the Wiki article :P . I was able to accomplish most of the preparation directives (saving the Serenity, knocking out both AWACS, eliminating the Mjolnirs, destroying the minelayers, wiping out Pisces wing, infecting the sentries, smashing the Carthage's Radomes, and even demolishing ALL THREE Corvettes). I got the debrief bug, but when I redid it in the techroom I got the accurate "light losses". Basically a Freespace RTS, with my main job (other than infecting the sentries) being to direct the battle. I tried it a couple times to get around the debrief bug; on my "Official" beating of the mission I got the Carthage so fasdt I didn't have time to call in the Toutatis!
I took the Carthage's surrender
Honorable agreements save lives in war. I respected Lopez; unlike Steele she takes care of her soldiers and doesn't commit war crimes. If I were a Tev pilot I'd sign up for the Carthage. The surrender reduced casualties on my side. Most importantly, it proved that Laporte could "Toe the line... Do this without becoming a monster". Besides, think what we could do with a whole Orion and 10,000 POWs?
Placing turrets was tricky in "Eyes in the Storm"
Mainly because of bugs. REALLY creative Freding guys, but it needs some work.
"Universal Truth" really freaked me out
That one mission had more shocking revelations and scary implications than the whole of Age of Aquarius. Basically it was the whole of Transcend packed into one mission. Incredible job, guys!
I'm uncomfortable with the Fedayeen
I recognize the necessity of the Fedayeen
I might not like them, but we do need them. See the next comment
Sides...
I WAS on the UEF side. After Universal Truth, I don't think I can trust anyone OUTSIDE the Fedayeen, although Calder and his men, while they might not understand, are sincere and willing to help.
Humanity has a chance!
We've got Ken, we've got Me. We can do this.
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I encountered a few technical issues - the resolution double vision problem on my other PC, the lagging in Her Finest Hour and the repair platform death in Eyes in the Storm. Also in Her Finest Hour, the artillery tagging sometimes stopped working.
I read most of the material in the dreamscape
Read pretty much everything I could find in the dreamscape.
I released the Gefs in 'Nothing is True'.
I believed the Ridwan pilots didnt have to die. I was sure the Fedayeen could arrange it so that nothing would get out (perhaps by issuing fake KIA certificates?). I was probably wrong, seeing as the traitor was an Elder.
I liked the Wardogs more.
I had some trouble pulling off the assassination, had to lower difficulty to manage the escape.
I destroyed the Gef habitat in 'One Future'. I fly like crap with the slow Custos-X.
'One Future' made me regret my earlier decision about the Gef pilots. They should have been grateful, bastards.
I hated flying the Custos-X. Slow and not particularly tough. The Karuna was better, but I like fighters the most.
I adapted well to 'Her Finest Hour'. After some initial trouble I read the Wiki recommendations and managed to beat it on Hard.
I took the Carthage's surrender. It was the right thing to do. Besides, violating BETAC is not wise while the GTVA could still win :D
I had some trouble with the turret placement in 'Eyes in the Storm' - the movement is very erratic with the sudden acceleration. Could it be done with mouse? Also, the repair platform bug..
'Universal Truth' was very well made, but I am spoiled by many horrors already, so not particularly freaky.
I escaped 'Universal Truth' with my mind intact, except when I purposefuly turned around to see what would happen if I do it.
I recognize the necessity of the Fedayeen. When the stake is survival of humanity, everything is permitted.
I have supported the UEF, and now I support only the Fedayeen, altrough if pressed I would still side with the UEF, since the GTVA started the war.
Humanity has a chance! If Noemi can pull of what the Shivans want...