Hard Light Productions Forums

Hosted Projects - Standalone => Wing Commander Saga => Topic started by: Tinman on April 10, 2009, 12:12:56 pm

Title: RELEASE: Behind Enemy Lines
Post by: Tinman on April 10, 2009, 12:12:56 pm
(http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/8171/wcspbeltop.png)

At the end of the year 2668 the TCS Independence is patrolling the Confederation-Kilrathi border to secure the area against any Kilrathi threat.

Requirements
------------
A working Wing Commander Saga Prologue installation, http://www.wcsaga.com/
Windows: FS2_Open SCP 3.6.10 trunk build RC1 or newer http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,62210.0/topicseen.html
MacOS X : use the link to a recent Wing Commander Saga FS2_Open build in my sig
7z http://www.7-zip.org/ to extract the archive

Download Links
CoreVP (http://files.filefront.com/BEL+core7z/;13582576;/fileinfo.html)
MissionVP (http://files.filefront.com/BEL+missions7z/;13577234;/fileinfo.html)

Complete Package at  freespacemods (http://www.freespacemods.net/download.php?view.529)

Installation
------------
Extract the archives into your Wing Commander Saga Prologue folder . In the launcher choose the recent FS2_Open SCP 3.6.10 trunk build and the BEL folder in the mod tab and have fun...
(in your BEL folder you need the files: BEL.bmp, BEL_core.vp, BEL_missions.vp, mod.ini)

Special thanks to the WCS team for the TC, Scooby_Doo for the models and to all the beta testers for the help  :)

some screenshots...

(http://img75.imageshack.us/img75/165/screen01i.jpg)
(http://img75.imageshack.us/img75/2852/screen02s.jpg)
(http://img75.imageshack.us/img75/5749/screen03.jpg)
(http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/4848/screen04.jpg)

Edit: freespacemods mirror added
Title: Re: RELEASE: Behind Enemy Lines
Post by: Mobius on April 10, 2009, 05:11:05 pm
Wow! I'm about to become a WC fan! :D

Uh, there's a missing "g" in the highlight... :(
Title: Re: RELEASE: Behind Enemy Lines
Post by: Vrets on April 10, 2009, 05:14:18 pm
I've never tried the Wing Commander mod. This seems like a good time to give it a go. :yes:

Those purple subspace effects are gorgeous.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Behind Enemy Lines
Post by: The E on April 10, 2009, 06:30:27 pm
While it is good to see new WCS content out here, I didn't like this one much. Not enough atmosphere, IMHO. No in-mission banter (yes, I know, it isn't the same without voice acting, but even if you have to read it off the screen, it helps with the whole Wing Commander feeling), no command briefings (It would have been nice to know just why the carrier jumps from one system to the next), extremely dry and really uninformative debriefings...
The missions themselves were alright, but without the aforementioned bits of fluff, they did feel rather lifeless.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Behind Enemy Lines
Post by: Mobius on April 10, 2009, 06:40:05 pm
I don't think the lack of VA is so important, really...most campaigns aren't voice acted.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Behind Enemy Lines
Post by: The E on April 10, 2009, 06:46:07 pm
You are right, most campaigns work just nicely without voice acting. My complaint here is the fact that there is, like, zero character building/storytelling going on. No sense of scale, or jeopardy (But then, I didn't finish the campaign yet. It may still change...). Nothing of the Atmosphere that other missions and campaigns have. It's literally just "Go there, shoot some Kilrathi, come back", followed by "Congratulations, you managed to shoot some Kilrathi" as a debriefing. Not very motivating, IMHO.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Behind Enemy Lines
Post by: Mobius on April 10, 2009, 06:50:46 pm
Killing some Kilrathi may be enough. :)

Aaaand...campaign wikified! (http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/Behind_Enemy_Lines) :D
Title: Re: RELEASE: Behind Enemy Lines
Post by: Aurora Paradox on April 10, 2009, 08:00:45 pm
I've never tried the Wing Commander mod. This seems like a good time to give it a go. :yes:


Same here.  I think I will give a try though.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Behind Enemy Lines
Post by: aRaven on April 10, 2009, 08:28:02 pm
how many missions are there?
Title: Re: RELEASE: Behind Enemy Lines
Post by: Tolwyn on April 11, 2009, 12:53:35 am
Uh, there's a missing "g" in the highlight... :(

Blame Goober. He made that highlight image.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Behind Enemy Lines
Post by: Tinman on April 11, 2009, 07:33:30 am
While it is good to see new WCS content out here, I didn't like this one much. Not enough atmosphere, IMHO. No in-mission banter (yes, I know, it isn't the same without voice acting, but even if you have to read it off the screen, it helps with the whole Wing Commander feeling), no command briefings (It would have been nice to know just why the carrier jumps from one system to the next), extremely dry and really uninformative debriefings...
The missions themselves were alright, but without the aforementioned bits of fluff, they did feel rather lifeless.

This is not a Freespace style campaign. I tried to be near the briefing/debriefing style as Wing Commander or Wing Commander II made it.
If you played the old Wing Commander games you might remember this. It is more or less: go there, kill the Kilrathi and make it back  :D

What is missing, are the "movie style" dialogs of the people of the carrier, like in the Wing Commander games. That is something I have no good idea, yet, how to get it done with the FS2 engine, but maybe the release of Wing Commander Saga will give me som hints.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Behind Enemy Lines
Post by: The E on April 11, 2009, 07:41:35 am
Well, my first Wing commander experience was with WC4, and I guess that that game, and the WCS Prologue (not to mention FS2), has coloured my expectations somewhat. To quote FS2, I'm willing to be a pawn if the game makes sense. In this case, it didn't, for me.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Behind Enemy Lines
Post by: Sphynx on April 11, 2009, 07:55:37 am
I look forward to seeing your work, but I am getting this error

Error: bp0c1.fs2(line 187:
Error: Required token = [#Wings] or [$Name:], found [+Score: 2000] .

File:J:\src\cvs\fs2_open_3_6_9.final\code\Parse\PARSELO.CPP
Line: 659
[This filename points to the location of a file on the computer that built this executable]

Call stack:
------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------

Title: Re: RELEASE: Behind Enemy Lines
Post by: The E on April 11, 2009, 08:00:41 am
Have you tried it with a recent (3.6.10) build? I used the 3.6.10 RC2, and it worked flawlessly.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Behind Enemy Lines
Post by: Tinman on April 11, 2009, 08:01:53 am
I look forward to seeing your work, but I am getting this error

Error: bp0c1.fs2(line 187:
Error: Required token = [#Wings] or [$Name:], found [+Score: 2000] .

File:J:\src\cvs\fs2_open_3_6_9.final\code\Parse\PARSELO.CPP
                                   ^^^^^^^^^

You need a recent FS2_Open SCP 3.6.10 build
Windows: FS2_Open SCP 3.6.10 trunk build RC1 or newer http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,62210.0/topicseen.html
Title: Re: RELEASE: Behind Enemy Lines
Post by: Sphynx on April 11, 2009, 08:36:10 am
Oops, missed that one. Thanks!
Title: Re: RELEASE: Behind Enemy Lines
Post by: Goober5000 on April 12, 2009, 02:06:45 am
Uh, there's a missing "g" in the highlight... :(

Blame Goober. He made that highlight image.
If you are talking about this (http://www.hard-light.net/images/highlights/wcs-campaign_release.png), no I didn't! :hopping:  In fact, I complained about the missing G when I first saw the image.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Behind Enemy Lines
Post by: chief1983 on April 12, 2009, 11:44:27 pm
Tinman, anything in particular that's special about your OS X builds?  The current RC2 set for OS X includes an Inferno set.  Have you done anything special with the code in terms of bugfixes, or any customizations to the project files?  Or, is there anything in particular wrong with the builds made by either myself or Echelon?
Title: Re: RELEASE: Behind Enemy Lines
Post by: Nubarus on April 13, 2009, 04:06:06 am
I can't advance in some mission, I return and it said failed.

Some transport needs to be escorted from a station, then some capship jumps in with fighter and bomber escorts.

It says destroy main turret, so I tried the big turret in front of the flak turret and afterwards the flak turret and tried some other smaller turrets but apparently none of these is the main turret. The ship is full of turrets so wich one is the main turret then?

Eventually the ship jumps out again and all the escort ships are destroyed, transport is still in once piece and it says return to base ship.

Still every time failed.........obviously since the ship has shields only my one single torpedo can destroy one turret, it would be pretty handy if they tell you to destroy a specific turret that they actually tell you wich one it is.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Behind Enemy Lines
Post by: Tinman on April 13, 2009, 04:22:52 am
Tinman, anything in particular that's special about your OS X builds?  The current RC2 set for OS X includes an Inferno set.  Have you done anything special with the code in terms of bugfixes, or any customizations to the project files?  Or, is there anything in particular wrong with the builds made by either myself or Echelon?

the only difference is that for WCS the cmdline_fso.cfg is stored in [your home folder]/Library/WCS Prologue/data/cmdline_fso.cfg
and for TBP the cmdline_fso.cfg is stored in [your home folder]/Library/TheBabylonProject/data/cmdline_fso.cfg

so the only changes from SVN is in osregistry_unix.cpp and the needed Preprocessor Macro set in XCode (WCSAGA,TBP)
Code: [Select]
#ifdef __APPLE__
 #ifdef WCSAGA
char *Osreg_user_dir = "Library/WCS Prologue";  // WCS
 #elif TBP
char *Osreg_user_dir = "Library/TheBabylonProject";  // TBP
 #else
char *Osreg_user_dir = "Library/FS2_Open";  // FS2_Open
 #endif

AFAIK for TBP MacOS X support is quite low - only a Windows Exe installer and no FS2_open build available.
For WCS the 3.6.9 build in the WCSP release was very buggy on (new) Macs (ATIX1600,PBOfix), so I decided to get XCode and SVN running and share the results with the community :)
Title: Re: RELEASE: Behind Enemy Lines
Post by: Tinman on April 13, 2009, 04:37:19 am
I can't advance in some mission, I return and it said failed.
Some transport needs to be escorted from a station, then some capship jumps in with fighter and bomber escorts. [...]

have you linked your autopilots? Fly near the transport, less then 600m then the autopilots link.

Spoiler:
do not destroy that main turret  :)
The player should think - "with a Thunderbolt into the flak of that cruiser? No way!"
Stay near the transport and guard it. The Caps take care of the Kilrathi. Then when all is over link your autopilots and return to the carrier.

This may help to identify the main turret

(http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/5023/screen05t.jpg)
(http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/3271/screen06k.jpg)

Edit: screenshots added
Title: Re: RELEASE: Behind Enemy Lines
Post by: dragonsniper on April 13, 2009, 04:49:45 pm
Wow... :eek2:  Now I really have to get this. Looks good. :yes: :yes:
Title: Re: RELEASE: Behind Enemy Lines
Post by: Nubarus on April 13, 2009, 05:20:32 pm
Yeah, that's the turret I blew up first time around, I guess I forgot to link the auto pilot then.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Behind Enemy Lines
Post by: Lucika on April 20, 2009, 05:06:58 pm
A bit offtopic, but how hard was it to make a purple subspace field? (I always hope for a recreation of the FS2 final cutscene, note the green subspace)
Title: Re: RELEASE: Behind Enemy Lines
Post by: Penfold on April 30, 2009, 11:40:10 am
I have to agree with The E; no flight chatter, no character development...tend to bore a little. A bit more on the story line (like a purpose) other than go there and kill that, would go a long way to making this one sing! Perhaps even an occasional Nav 1 surprise would help the ... intrigue!

Nubarus: Torpedo the Main Turret. It makes the Cap ship scram, going to the story point (Ya get it later!).

Anyways, as a WC fan for (OK, years and years), I didn't mind a bit of cat killing at all.

You got the right idea, so keep on!!!
Title: Re: RELEASE: Behind Enemy Lines
Post by: dragon1 on May 19, 2009, 03:58:21 pm
I personally prefer limited story interactions.  Part of what made the original WC so great was that plot details were left by-and-large to player imagination.

Pardon my ignorance, but, is there anyway to create missions with the new ships?  I try to use FRED, but the new models don't seem to come up.

Thanks for the great mod!
Title: Re: RELEASE: Behind Enemy Lines
Post by: General Battuta on May 19, 2009, 04:13:54 pm
You need to alter your FRED command line (under 'properties' on a shortcut to FRED) with -mod WCS or something like that. Right, guys?
Title: Re: RELEASE: Behind Enemy Lines
Post by: Tinman on May 19, 2009, 05:40:20 pm
in this case you have to add -mod bel in the shortcut of Fred in your WCS folder

see http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/General_Hints_%28FREDding%29
to setup fred for mods (at the end of the page)

Edit: link added
Title: Re: RELEASE: Behind Enemy Lines
Post by: Mikes on May 23, 2009, 06:17:00 am
I personally prefer limited story interactions.  Part of what made the original WC so great was that plot details were left by-and-large to player imagination.

It depends...  personally, a good storyline makes all the difference for me.

I liked Wing Commander 1, especially the branching missions,
but Wing Commander 2 with it's much expanded story was what really sold me on the series.
Wing Commander 3, despite the life-actors... was still good, but storywise it struck me as quite a bit worse than WC2 actually.
WC3 had a lot of similar themes that WC2 already did, just WC2 really had done them better already, like the traitor theme or the romance.
WC4 on the other hand completely made up for any gripes i might have had with the series. It was just all around awesome, despite an absence of Kilrathi.

WC5... seriously... i don't really even consider it a continuation of what Wing Commander was. It was pretty much a different game that happened to have space combat too and pretended to still exist in the same "storyuniverse"... and with Secret Ops that basically cut the story presentation to a minimum it just fell apart - for me anyways.

However... we also gotta keep things in perspective and i do appreciate that someone would make a campaign to allow us to have a peek at some of the shiny things and the gameplay that will be in WCSaga eventually ;)
Of course the Prologue with all the radio chatter and banter was 10 times more awesome, but that doesn't mean we gotta diss this campaign,... just gotta see it in perspective for what it is - and then it actually can be quite fun :)
Title: Re: RELEASE: Behind Enemy Lines
Post by: Metallix on May 23, 2009, 02:17:15 pm
I'm about to ask a stupid question but, anyway .. : Is ther something on the radar that should indicate Nav points positions, 'cause I got nothing, and I search everywhere :/ . Is that normal ? When I switch target,  there isn't any nav points. I set radar range to infinity but, still nothing...
Title: Re: RELEASE: Behind Enemy Lines
Post by: Tinman on May 23, 2009, 07:59:01 pm
no, there are no Nav points on the radar (hmm, kind of a bug) :nervous:
Title: Re: RELEASE: Behind Enemy Lines
Post by: Mancubus on May 26, 2009, 05:14:15 am
no, there are no Nav points on the radar (hmm, kind of a bug) :nervous:

It's hard to call bug, as Navpoints are not implemented in any way in the original fs2, they are just added as part of fan modifications to FSOpen. they are, however visible on your HUD as blu braces, along with distance. to target them just press alt+N, and later alt+A for autopilot. also if navpoint indicator is out of your field of view, there would be a bluish gray arrow on the sde of your screen to indicate direction you need to face, so it is not that hard to find them... :rolleyes:
Title: Re: RELEASE: Behind Enemy Lines
Post by: GNARLYBRO on June 16, 2009, 03:12:07 pm
i want to start by saying this mod is awesome i have the osx version of it and it works perfectly and i don't mean to offend but i'm not a huge fan of scooby's models and i was wondering if there is any way to modify the .vp files in a text editor to make other ships appear in the game (for example taking off and landing from a lexington class carrier instead of a gettysburg class, fighting gothris instead of pakriss(es?) etc.)
Title: Re: RELEASE: Behind Enemy Lines
Post by: Cobra on June 16, 2009, 09:23:21 pm
Sentences, please.

And it's not as simple as just changing the models anyway, since it would break the missions. Plus you can't edit the .VP's with a text editor anyway. :nervous:
Title: Re: RELEASE: Behind Enemy Lines
Post by: LoneFan on July 20, 2009, 01:58:24 pm
 :eek2: This conversion is a masterpiece. I would like to play WC BEL, but I get this error message.

Quote
Error: bp0c1.fs2(line 187:
Error: Required token = [#Wings] or [$Name:], found [+Score: 2000].

File:J:/src/cvs/fs2_open_3_6_9.final/code/Parse/PARSELO.CPP
Line: 659
[This filename points to the location of a file on the computer that built this
Executable]

Call stack:
--------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------

Could someone help me out.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Behind Enemy Lines
Post by: The E on July 20, 2009, 02:07:14 pm
You are using FS2Open 3.6.9, despite the readme saying this needs 3.6.10. Get it here (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,64520.msg1271916/topicseen.html#msg1271916).
Title: Re: RELEASE: Behind Enemy Lines
Post by: LoneFan on July 20, 2009, 04:39:05 pm
OK, thanks, I got it going now.