Hard Light Productions Forums
Community Projects => The FreeSpace Campaign Restoration Project => Topic started by: Kosh on March 04, 2007, 01:34:18 am
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Something I just noticed is that it is becoming increasingly difficult to get ahold of old campaigns. For example, Casualties of War. The only download link that actually works is for fileplanet, which because of changes made to it by Gamespy has become practically unusable to non-subscribers. So how can we get around these issues?
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Stick them all on Hades-Combine?
That site is woefully underused.
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OK, so who should we volunteer for doing this? :p
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Stick them all on Hades-Combine?
That site is woefully underused.
Indeed. Would be nice if we could get more mods. Funny thing is though, I can't tell if our little FTP glitches (files disappeared off the FTP, resulting in bad downloads) have been resolved yet or not. Right now as far as I'm concerned every file is still at risk.
[EDIT] Although there haven't been any reports of screwups lately, so have it it if you want to.
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I have a ton (well, it seems that way..) of old campaigns stuck on my HDD. You want me to make a directory listing of them, and post it here?
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Something I just noticed is that it is becoming increasingly difficult to get ahold of old campaigns. For example, Casualties of War. The only download link that actually works is for fileplanet, which because of changes made to it by Gamespy has become practically unusable to non-subscribers. So how can we get around these issues?
I've never paid Gamespy a cent, and I don't seem to have any trouble grabbing files. But I do agree that a community-maintained version of the Archives is sorely needed.
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Me too. I have stuff which I can't even remember the name of the person who made it, let alone where anyone else would find it.
OK, so who should we volunteer for doing this? :p
Not me. But I have been thinking lately that someone should form a restoration team. Their job would be to get hold of ever single halfway decent campaign and make sure that they work with FS2_Open 3.6.9.
Basically that would mean that we'd need people to play through the entire campaign and spot bugs as well as having other people capable of fixing them.
Once the missions are fixed they would have to make sure that they are available from at least two stable FS oriented websites. Hades-Combine is a fairly obvious choice. SectorGame might be another good choice. DW-Hunter's site would be a third but I hesitate to suggest that one seeing as the installer is already eating a big chunk of his bandwidth.
Personally I think this would me a very good project for newbies and moderately experienced tablers/FREDders. We already have a lot of newbies coming into the community and playing campaigns and then finding faults. All you'd have to do is harness that by giving them a large directory of campaigns to play through.
Get the end product linked up in Skippy's campaign list and instead of having newbies wondering what there is to play you could point them at a large database of working missions and campaigns rather than the mess we have at the moment. I know it sounds like a big project but to be honest it's nothing more than what people have been doing in a rather disorganised fashion already.
I'd also like someone (jr2 would be a good choice) to start and update a thread with a list of every campaign which has seen some sort of release. I may have a few other campaigns that he doesn't have and I'm more than happy to add them to his archive if I can find out what they are. For instance I suspect he doesn't have All's Fair in Love and War since I haven't heard anyone mention that campaign since I originally played it.
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Me too. I have stuff which I can't even remember the name of the person who made it, let alone where anyone else would find it.
same here :)
Not me. But I have been thinking lately that someone should form a restoration team. Their job would be to get hold of ever single halfway decent campaign and make sure that they work with FS2_Open 3.6.9.
shouldn't we wait for 3.7.0? That is going to be the "cat's meow", right? Or would a campaign/mission compatible with 3.6.9 also be compatible with 3.7.0?
I'd also like someone (jr2 would be a good choice) ... For instance I suspect he doesn't have All's Fair in Love and War since I haven't heard anyone mention that campaign since I originally played it.
Wrong.. :D I should have that one buried somewhere. :nervous: I'm one of those freaks that Googles mods for a game, download them all into different directories, usually named by game name and date aquired, forget what I have, end up with five different copies of the same file, my hard disk fills up, and then I have to go organize my download folder again to find useless duplicates (at one point I had 3 or 4 different copies of the full set of FS2 install discs, if I remember right).
... My download folder currently is about 43.4 Gigs in size... well, if you count the backup iso's of different CDs/DVDs, then 88.8... If you count my MP3 collection... never mind. XD
BUT... to mention the reason for the spiel above, does anyone know of a nice free (preferably open source :) ) software for finding duplicate files? How about one for searching for a file in a directory, including within archives? I currently use PowerDesk's FileFinder for that, it's pretty quick (maybe 10x faster than windoze search), but I use the free version, which doesn't search inside archives.
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Compatibility with 3.6.9 should also cover 3.7 for the vast majority of stuff. 3.7 may be up to a year away from now so I see no point in waiting even if it doesn't.
If you need coder help deciphering the really esoteric error messages I'll help where I can. Frankly I think this is the sort of thing we should have got started on ages ago so I hope some other people are willing to join up. Especially as all that is required for a lot of them is to just play some new (to them) FS2 campaigns :)
Oh and colour me surprised if you have All's Fair. I managed to find the release thread (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,16058.0.html) and really was the only person who played it. :)
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Hmm. Interesting idea. Should I make a new forum for the FreeSpace Campaign Reclamation Project? :)
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Hmm. Interesting idea. Should I make a new forum for the FreeSpace Campaign Reclamation Project? :)
Sounds cool. I've got a few old campaigns floating around here as well. :)
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That sounds like a good idea... where do you think it should go, though? (Which category?)
HLP Forums > FreeSpace
HLP Forums > FreeSpace > Missions and Campaigns
HLP Forums > Community Projects
?
EDIT: I vote for Community Projects
EDIT2: @karajorma; what was the original (server) filename? If you don't know, what is the name of one of the files inside and I'll use MS Search :ick: to try and find it... ;7
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No idea jr2. I saved the campaign to DVD but I renamed the archive when I did that almost certainly.
As for the new forum. Either community projects or as a subforum of this one. I prefer the first one as it is more visible.
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BUT... to mention the reason for the spiel above, does anyone know of a nice free (preferably open source :) ) software for finding duplicate files? How about one for searching for a file in a directory, including within archives? I currently use PowerDesk's FileFinder for that, it's pretty quick (maybe 10x faster than windoze search), but I use the free version, which doesn't search inside archives.
Windows Support Tools comes with DupFinder.exe, which is what I use.
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Either community projects... I prefer the first one as it is more visible.
:yes:
Thx Turey, I will try that.
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I'd be willing to work on something like this. I've only been into FreeSpace for a year or so, but I've been playing a lot of older campaigns. Gotten pretty good at findings and reporting bugs... not so much on fixing them :)
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It may not be "really old", but I did add backgrounds and nameplates to The Lightning Marshal 1 and 2, only to find that these campaigns have many bugs. Anyone think that this would be a reasonable candidate for inclusion in this project?
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I've certainly got no problem with including them. Although I'd like to see a priority on making sure campaigns actually work on 3.6.9 ahead of going through them and bug fixing them (unless the bug is a real show stopper like that docking ring one in Derelict).
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Ahoy! Im in all favour about this initiative... there were lots of good stuff that would need a facelift (kinda like Derelict did) :)
On the department of helping, im more than willing to, ocasionally, call dibs on HTLizing a model or 2 used for a certain campaign ^^
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In the case of Pat 1 of the Lightning Marshal, at least one bug is a showstopper indeed. I suppose it is just a case of relative priority with whomever would like to spend their time debugging... :)
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I'll see if I can dig up some of the old campaigns I have on my other compy, like Beyond the Cause and Operation Crucible.
In retrospect, we probably should have started doing this when FS Watch first stopped updating. But oh well.
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I have all the FS1 and FS2 campaigns that were in the FS watch Archives. Most of the FS1 campaigns I've ported and the FS2 campaigns are compatible with FSO 3.6.9. Some of the campaigns still have their original bugs but I've tried to get them all to work. I'll start posting them to the Hades Combine as I get a chance.
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In retrospect, we probably should have started doing this when FS Watch first stopped updating.
Some of us did. Several of us have a whole bunch of FS Watch stuff languishing in our archives. :)
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The only older ones I have are Warzone and Pandora's Box, but I think those are still fairly easy to find.
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Okay. What I think we should do next is have a campaign of the week. We let everyone play and see what bugs we find. Then anyone who is willing to can fix the bug. Table bugs should be the easiest ones to fix I'm sure.
Might also be nice if we take a leaf out of Admiral Nelson's book and add nameplates while we're at it but I wouldn't want to make that a requirement. :)
Anyone got an idea on what we should work on first?
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Why not start with the oldest and most prominent?
Either that or start a poll - what campaigns would people like to see brought up to date for SCP?
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Ah but what is the most prominent?
What we need to do is find a good campaign with a few minor problems that people would enjoy to play to start the ball rolling. Lightning Marshal is probably a very good choice for that as there are problems with it but people seemed to like it a lot. But before I arbitrarily decided on it I was wondering if anyone else had suggestions.
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I have lightning marshal 1 and 2 done with lightspeed nebulae and nameplates. It needs bugfixes to be really playable, though.
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How 'bout we do TLM 1-4 for the first 4 weeks? I dunno, just a suggestion. I've got TLM 1-4, BTW.
Oh, BTW, where are we uploading fixed campaigns? Hades Combine, FileFront, both?
EDIT: As we get them fixed, you want me to add them to a thread listing all the campaigns, right?
If so, what do you think that thread should be called?
EDIT2: I went to create an account with Hades Combine... who's the admin over there? He's still running it, right? 'Cause it said it e-mailed him to activate my account (you can prolly guess the username I picked).
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Ah but what is the most prominent?
What we need to do is find a good campaign with a few minor problems that people would enjoy to play to start the ball rolling. Lightning Marshal is probably a very good choice for that as there are problems with it but people seemed to like it a lot. But before I arbitrarily decided on it I was wondering if anyone else had suggestions.
I'll second LM. Especially if Admiral has a headstart on them as he says.
I don't know how many have it, but I have the incomplete, yet still excellent Titan Rebellion floating around on my comp. It's essentially bugfree, and I think it's due for an upgrade to SCP glory. Note: incomplete means the story was never finished, but all of the missions are playable, at almost at original FS2 quality.
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Umm... Titan Rebellion was completed as far as I know. At least, I played something called Titan Rebellion. It was basically Silent Threat for FS2, with all of the mediocrity and bad mission design of the original. ;)
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Titan Rebellion was never completed. It is missing the last three missions. I've been doing "some" work with it:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v106/NelsonAndBronte/FS2/OnStation.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v106/NelsonAndBronte/FS2/Fire.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v106/NelsonAndBronte/FS2/Ouch.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v106/NelsonAndBronte/FS2/Boom.jpg)
I will post what I have for LM 1 and 2 shortly.
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Titan Rebellion was never completed. It is missing the last three missions.
Oh right, I forgot about that. :)
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Think it's possible to set up some sort of FTP or file center for the in-progress work?
I've never played Lightning Marshall. Guess now's as good a time as any :D
I'd also vote for bringing Homesick and Sol: A History up to SCP standards. Homesick's crashing has been resolved by Taylor's fix for the red alert bug (Mantis report 1255, IIRC), but maybe something can be done with the missions design itself to ensure problems are eliminated. Other red alert missions seem to work fine.
I'm getting really good at finding bugs... not so good at fixing them. I'm getting decent at filling out bug reports though :D
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The attraction of overhauling Lightning Marshal, for me anyways, was that LM3 is fully voice acted, and there aren't very many of those floating around. Anyone know of other voice acted campaigns that should be put in the queue?
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EDIT2: I went to create an account with Hades Combine... who's the admin over there? He's still running it, right? 'Cause it said it e-mailed him to activate my account (you can prolly guess the username I picked).
... Still not even a peep. Is this normal?
EDIT: The admin actually has to manually create my account? Usually, you just get an automated e-mail.
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I been trying to find pandora's box and Allied forces(like it for some reason) myself for a quite some time haven't been able to find so far.
it's nice to see that at least some old Campaings are getting face lift good job on that :yes:
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Alright, here is my WIP Lightning Marshal folder:
Click (http://files.filefront.com//;6880014;;/)
For the LM1 and LM2 missions I added Lightspeed backgrounds and nameplates. There are bugs in these missions that need to be fixed before they are playable. You will also note the LM prequel campaign "Sirius" in the folder; I have not yet touched this campaign as it too has bugs. We'd need to go thru all of the LM1 and 2 missions and crush any bugs along the way.
Other things I have:
Titan Rebellion:
I reworked all of the 13 existing missions with nameplates, backgrounds, heavily rewritten dialogue and new models. As you see in the images above, I used Vengeance's fantastic Titan model to replace the Titan originally found in the campaign. Titan Rebellion would need its last three missions FREDed to be ready for release, plus testing to make sure I didn't screw up anything in the first 13. I ran into trouble in that I intended to use Nico's Vampire in the last few missions but this model has geometry issues with its cockpit.
Warzone:
Created all needed nameplates, and did backgrounds for all the canon systems in the campaign. There are three non canon systems in the campaign for which new backgrounds are needed. Warzone also uses custom planets, which are terribly low rez these days and should be replaced. The GTE Vidar model used isn't bad looking, but its textures are incredibly low rez and lack shine / glow maps. There are a very few issues with some missions to fix.
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Titan Rebellion would need its last three missions FREDed to be ready for release, plus testing to make sure I didn't screw up anything in the first 13.
While ordinarily I'm too busy to commit to anything, I can do one or two of those three missions. Especially for Titan. :)
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Wonderful!!
Here is the WIP SCP Titan Rebellion (http://files.filefront.com//;6881512;;/)
Give it a spin, and give any feedback. I have ideas about what the last three missions should be, but now that we have a community project going, we can open it up for discussion.
Alpha 1 needs your help!! :)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v106/NelsonAndBronte/FS2/A1Titan.jpg)
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I ran through Titan earlier and found two glaring bugs (nay, two show-stoppers)
The first is that in Counter-Intelligence (the mission with the NeoIntel evacuation), Iota wing bumps around at the NeoIntel Station (i.e. three small Elysium transports repeatedly bump the station) and never move onto their objective. I had to cheat and use a Morning Star to move them. They'll possibly need waypoints instead of an immediate departure order.
Secondly, there's no Titan03.pof included with the download, which is what the TBM specifies for the Titan. There's a TitanComplete, but no Titan03. It's a rather bit of a showstopper, as TitanComplete is not apparently what is necessary.l
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Crap. Here's the POF
Titan3.zip (http://files.filefront.com//;6883260;;/)
I'll look into the transports.
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I'll take a look at that transport problem, too, when I get back from work... I have a sneaking suspicion.
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I don't have it, but HLP probably has it somewhere in the archives - don't forget Technological Superiority :)
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we really need to go on and clean up sol a history. it needs nameplates, new sun (which just got made btw) and new planets.
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I been trying to find pandora's box and Allied forces(like it for some reason) myself for a quite some time haven't been able to find so far.
I have both of these campaigns lying around my missions directory; however, the two .zip files for Pandora's Box seem to be corrupted. If someone knows of some sort of archive recovery program, I could try using it on them to see if I can get the data out. Here's (http://home.comcast.net/~andrewduk/PandorasBox.zip) Pandora's Box, at any rate.
I don't have it, but HLP probably has it somewhere in the archives - don't forget Technological Superiority :)
It looks like TS episode 1 is still available through the HLP hosted site via FilePlanet. I'm assuming that that was the only portion that was ever completed; I don't have any other episodes lying around myself.
I'd be willing to lend some help to this initiative, as my time and abilities allow. I may not be able to do to much on the FREDding or artwork side of things, but I can at the very least track down bugs and determine which systems missions occur in for background purposes. It'd give me an excuse to play all of these older campaigns I have lying around, too. :)
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I been trying to find pandora's box and Allied forces(like it for some reason) myself for a quite some time haven't been able to find so far.
it's nice to see that at least some old Campaings are getting face lift good job on that :yes:
Here is Allied Forces I posted it on Hades combine. http://hades-combine.com/web/index.php?ind=downloads&op=entry_view&iden=261
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I been trying to find pandora's box and Allied forces(like it for some reason) myself for a quite some time haven't been able to find so far.
it's nice to see that at least some old Campaings are getting face lift good job on that :yes:
Here is Allied Forces I posted it on Hades combine. http://hades-combine.com/web/index.php?ind=downloads&op=entry_view&iden=261
You are a good man for posting that.
I'm off to do some serious playing now. :p
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Is Allied Forces different from the Jake Wars 1 & 2? The mission design in those was so bad it made me laugh.
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Is Allied Forces different from the Jake Wars 1 & 2? The mission design in those was so bad it made me laugh.
Allied Forces is 1000% better than JW. It follows the same storyline, as it is a revamp, but it's much better than the originals. I actually had fun playing that one.
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Heh, Allied Forces reminds me of a MOD by brother's making (and forcing me to play :p)
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How about Warzone? I really want to revamp that campaign...
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This is what I have for Warzone:
Warzone:
Created all needed nameplates, and did backgrounds for all the canon systems in the campaign (about half of all missions). There are three non canon systems in the campaign for which new backgrounds are needed. Warzone also uses custom planets, which are terribly low rez these days and should be replaced. The GTE Vidar model used isn't bad looking, but its textures are incredibly low rez and lack shine / glow maps. There are a very few issues with some missions to fix.
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I have a couple of campaigns that I recorded ages ago (and I actually know where they are :P) if anyone is interested, they are: Pandora's Box, Homesick, Renegade Ressurgence and Warzone, I played all except Homesick on 3.6.8 and dont remember any bugs whatsoever.
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You can count on me if you want to revamp Warzone. It was the first not-canon campaign I played and I really liked it...
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Here is the WIP Warzone:
Download (http://files.filefront.com//;6909263;;/)
Here is the to do list:
Properly align planets and stars for missions 1-7
Create new backgrounds for Kaus Borealis, Gienah Cygni and Naos
Create high rez planets to replace old custom planets
Create high rez textures / shinemaps/ glowmaps for GTE Vidar
Spelling and Grammar fixup
Review all missions for bugs (there are at least a few in there)
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If you're going to create high rez planets, please dont replace that old lava planet, that one is really cool.
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Lol...that 1-7 means missions 1 and 7 or missions 1 through 7? :lol:
I can:
Create backgrounds, LS nebulae are welcome.
Adjust backgrounds.
Review missions for bugs.
Make the campaign better using advanced SEXPs, when they're needed.
Recruit voice actors.
Create cutscenes(creating good cutscenes means adding text, it's not always necessary).
I can't:
Create textures.
Grammar check
Ok, I'm in.... but the revamp should be coordinated well. Bob-san has created a forum(I do basically everything there...Steadfastm ROTP, INFR1...) where we can discuss about the upgrade. What do you think?
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I can take care of the background stuff and grammar. I added the LS backgrounds to missions one through seven, but did not go back and make sure that the planets were lit correctly.
I think a careful run through of the missions noting anything weird or broken (for instance in the mission "Northwest Passage", the Tatenen never is able to destroy the Shivan corvette), would do to make it ready for rerelease.
It would be nice to have upgraded planets that preserved as much of the appearance as possible of the old ones, just in higher resolution.
What other forum do you want to use? The advantage of a thread in this forum is that it provides a consistent place for people to come and view progress into the rehabilitation of old campaigns.
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Maybe you're right...we need the support of other HLP members....but we can't use HLP for everything. Once we form up a team, we should move to TSP. We can't post everything here.
Ok when I have time I play the campaign.
I can create backgrounds, but not like you...you have that member title...there must be a reason(I have that member title because of my nick, but it's ok for a guy that scrapped about 30 missions... :lol: ).
The voice actors I have recruited for INFR1 can work on Warzone instead since revamping INFR1 is not a priority at the moment.
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Sounds good.
What is TSP?
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Ask an admin to create a subforum in The FreeSpace Campaign Restoration Project
Call it "Warzone"
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And Ill be taking a peek to recreate the Vidar, when I find some time and strenght :)
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Eat your Wheaties.
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Please be clear...do you want to join the Warzone SCP team? As I said, Bob-san created a forum we can use for our projects(Steadfast and ROTP are being developed there, for example).
I will send a link via PM.
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Please be clear...do you want to join the Warzone SCP team? As I said, Bob-san created a forum we can use for our projects(Steadfast and ROTP are being developed there, for example).
Was that pointed at me? If so, the answer is no... what I said is that I may HTLize the Vidar if I find myself some time, in the near future... Its just 1 model anyway, so if I start working on it, ill PM you so you can fire your modeler :P
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An additional bug to look into for Warzone pulled out of old posts on the forum:
Pardon the bump, but I'm having one of the same problems Turalyon was with Warzone. I'm at the mission "Stacking the Deck," and I am getting all primary objectives completed, getting my "congratulations and well done" messages at the mission review screen, but I then when I try to "accept" I get a message saying I can't because I failed the mission.
Another weird thing about this mission was that I could choose any weapon and any ship I wanted at the loadout stage. Even an SF Mara. Did this happen with anyone else besides Turalyon?
EDIT:
Bah! Nevermind. I just managed to get through successfully. The original problem was caused by one of two things. 1) It didn't like me using a non-standard loadout (unlikely) or 2) The bonus objective of scanning the Vidar (which I didn't know about until this time around) was actually required for the mission to be considered "successful." Either way, problem solved.
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Bonus objectives should never be required though. That bonus objective either needs to become an invalidated primary objective or the campaign file needs to be altered to allow progress without its completion.
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Yes, I agree. All of that stuff was cut n pasted from the old comment. I suppose it looked as if I thought the problem was solved.... :)
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Should I fix that? It's a 10 secs work.
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Yep. It may be a bit more work to fix the problem in the mission "Northwest Passage" in which the Tatenen never is able to destroy the Shivan corvette.
I see that m2258734a has done stars for the three non canon systems in Warzone already, so I can have a go at these backgrounds.
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Ok.
Are you sure we have to coordinate the upgrading of Warzone from here?
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No, but you have not told me yet where the other location is that you want to discuss it... :)
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Well, I didn't expect this to happen. Sounds really cool.