[BlueFlames]

Some teaser images...







FreeSpace 2:  Second Front

As is my usual style, this mission's story runs in parallel with the last few missions of the main FS2 campaign.  You know...  Fifty juggernauts are in Capella, but I put you clear on the other side of the galaxy.

It was supposed to be a holiday 2002 present to the community...  Yeah...  Ummm....  Yeah....  Well, I got the "holiday" part and the first three digits of the year right at least.  Of course, the next part of the project might not be done until 2010, but that's about the status quo around here.  

[Hippo]

looks like 2 cains docked to create a new ship... interesting...

[BlueFlames]

Liliths actually, but yeah.  This is the second time I've done that for a mission.  Coupled with some scripting, it's basically an easy way to make a tougher ship without going to the effort of designing new models, textures, etc.  I've tried it with other ships, but Cains and Liliths are the only ones that look decent enough to use when spliced.

[Shinobi]

Nice

Downloading

[kv1at3485]

Um, should the sound files be placed in the data\sounds\special directory?  Not data\sounds?

[BlueFlames]

The mission is set up to look in the "...\data\sounds" directory.  It's not where most people tend to put them, but that's why I noted it in the readme file.

[kv1at3485]

Oh, I meant voices/special, but oh well.

Another thing, there is a bug in your SOC mission.  GTS Expedience's departure condition does not take into account if Neptune 3 is disabled.

[BlueFlames]

Fixed that bug, and found out I put an extra mission (old version of one of the missions, really) in the VP that the campaign file never references, so I took that out.  The zip file is a whole 3KB smaller.

[Setekh]

BlueFlames? Boy, haven't seen that name for a while. Sweet job, man. Bummer about the nonthankworthy beta testers, but awesome that you got it out the door in the right... errr, millenium.

[kv1at3485]

More bugs with your SOC mission.

Message C2Doh is sent by 'Command' if the Capitol is destroyed.  I don't think you want this to happen.  Have it sent by Alpha 2 (who ends up being invulnerable anyway.)

When the Capital is destroyed after coming out of the node, the mission does not display a 'return to base' indicator.  If you jump out, everything works fine, though.

Note that I'm still using the older version, so I'm not sure if these bugs have been fixed.

[kv1at3485]

More bugs (again using the old version, so you may have fixed these...)

Concerning 'Wounded Beast'.  I died one time, then I played it a second time, but the following strange things happened...

First, the directive that says 'Disable Shivan Destroyers' doesn't seem to work.  I disabled the destroyers but the directive did not indicate that I had.  The weird part is that it should.  I can't see anything wrong with your SEXPs.

Second, for some reason only Gamma 1 and Gamma 4 showed up at the beginning of the mission.  I have no idea why this is.  In any case, because the 'complete' Gamma wing was not destroyed, Delta and Epsilon never arrive, and so the SOC wings never arrive.  However, I still beat the mission without these reinforcements.

Third, (and this is definately an oversight on your part), concerns the Firestorm.  I lost the Firestorm right at the very end (she was destroyed by the explosion of the last Shivan destroyer.)  Therefore, your mission objective concerning protecting the Firestorm returned true , when it should have returned false .  Because of this, the mission debriefing states that all three cruisers survived.  Check the way you did your mission objectives.  There is a problem there.

Concerning 'Cleanup', the mission comes to a stand still if the Agoroth is destroyed.  I'm sure you'll figure out how to deal with this one.  

[BlueFlames]

I took your advice on the message in the loop mission message, and added another event to set up your departure cue, should the GTFr Capital get destroyed.

I'm not exactly sure what stops the 'disable' directive to stop working...  There's nothing fancy to it, so it's probably related to the wing issue, though I don't see how.

The problem with Gamma wing only showing up partially after you die and restart the mission has to do with the number of fighters in that wing...  You know how FRED2 whines about more than four fighters in Alpha, Beta, or Gamma wings?  This is why.  I swapped Beta and Gamma wings' names for Delta and Epsilon, but the new Gamma wing has six fighters in it again.  There's not much else I can do about it without fiddling with the mission balance, and in a mission of this size, that's no small feat.

Meson bombs aside, I've never really encountered the problem of a shockwave destroying a cruiser in all my years playing FS2.  I've had debris of all kinds hit capital ships and destroy them, but never, ever have I seen a shockwave destroy something larger than a GTB Medusa.  I won't rule out the possibility that the GTC Firestorm was destroyed by a shockwave though.  I've added a delay to the return to base directive and the triggers for the objectives, so that the shockwaves should have passed before the status of any of the fleet ships is checked.

Regarding the problem of the GVT Agoroth getting destroyed, I have added another 'abort mission' message and directive.  It was silly of me to have missed that...

The updated archive is now uploaded.  (Filesize change was less than a kilobyte.)

Setekh, millenium?  Give me a bit of credit...  I got it out in the right decade.  I won't get my next project done before 2010, but I'm confident I'll have it released before Y3K becomes a concern of the sensationalist media.

[kv1at3485]

Out of curiousity, exactly what changes did you make to the ship and weapon tables?

[BlueFlames]

I updated the turret configurations for the Lucifer and Arcadia, set the Cyclops up to do more damage to subsystems, and increased the targetting range of some of the anti-capship beams.  Oh, and I changed the entry for the GVFr Satis to GVT Satis, since it's never had a cargo dock in FS2, but that's purely superficial.

[kv1at3485]

Hmm, a small suggestion then.

I believe you can actually get rid of your modified ship table.  In the ship editor, there's a field labelled 'Alt Name'.  Put 'GVT Satis' there, and the Agoroth will show up as a 'GVT Satis'.  See?  No need for an extra ship table!  

[BlueFlames]

I could have done that, but since I had also tweaked the turrets on the Lucifer and Arcadia (could have been done in FRED2, but I'm too lazy to do it for each mission they appear in), I figured there'd be no harm in tossing another entry in.  Besides, the ZIP file isn't even 200kb.  Regardless of if you're on dialup or not, that doesn't exactly take long to download.

[Govenator]

Great job on this campaign. 

I really like the second to last mission (big battle).  I also liked how the dialogue went and how the story opened up.  The balancing was also pretty amazing in my opinion.  Some of these missions were almost a half hour long and they were still not overwhelming. 

Only downside I saw was I thought this campaign could have developed into so much more.  It was fun but it was short and left much to be answered.

Still very cool campaign.

[Shivan Hunter]

Great job on this necro.

I really like the second to last post (from 2003).  I also liked how the 2003 went and how the 2003 opened up.  The 2003 was also pretty amazing in my opinion.  Some of these missions were almost a half 2003 long and they were still not 2003.

Only 2003 I saw was I thought this 2003 could have developed into so much 2003.  It was 2003 but it was 2003 and left 2003 to be 2003.

Still 2003 cool 2003.

[edit] what amazes me most is that the pics are still hosted lol

[Mongoose]

Posts on release threads technically never qualify as necroing, as they're the official places to discuss said releases.  Granted, there was a much larger time gap for this one than most, but that's no reason to get sarcastic.

[Govenator]

I appreciate the support Mongoose.  Glad to know I didn't commit a community no-no.  Even if I am 11 years behind everyone else.