[Lepanto]

How does your FREDding/modeling experience affect the way you experience other people's campaigns? Do you tend to notice stuff like, "oh, the FREDder must've pulled that trick off with SEXPs X and Y"? Does your recognition of the modding/FREDding artistry "behind the curtain" rob a campaign of some of its mystique and pull you out of the experience, and/or does it enhance your experience as a player?

[General Battuta]

I like bad design less and appreciate good design more.

[Spoon]

It has made me appreciate a lot of the stuff Axem does more.

[procdrone]

When I play the campaign, i don't look on it in terms of FRED, but when im out in FRED, and im to do something, and the heck like "How do i do it...?" Then i just remember seeing something similar somewhere and just take a look.

[0rph3u5]

It varies from moment to moment ... when I just want to be along for the ride I don't really register what's behind the curtain; but if I am asked to look under the hood of a mission I usually get a lot more critical than used to be...

However since scripting entered the arena I find myself more and more diconnected from the realm of possible solutions, hence it becomes harder and harder for me to truely make out some of underlying structure as it is no longer all build from the blocks I know; and so my critical reception is somewhat less than it used to be

[Black Wolf]

I'll occasionally find it frustrating if I run across bad design or general sloppiness - and especially if I hit a bug or something that indicates the mission just hasn't been adequately tested. These sorts of things are immersion breaking for everyone though, so it may not be a FREDding thing.

But, when the missions are well made, I think I appreciate it quite a bit more, and it certainly doesn't decrease my immersion level or anything. We all know we're playing a game - I don't think that knowing how that game works makes too much difference, as long as there's no sense that we could have done it significantly better than hiw it was actually done (which is rarely the case fir well made missions).

[Axem]

I'll occasionally find it frustrating if I run across bad design or general sloppiness - and especially if I hit a bug or something that indicates the mission just hasn't been adequately tested. These sorts of things are immersion breaking for everyone though, so it may not be a FREDding thing.

This is my own experience too. Running through my own missions a bazillion times and taking the time to fix all these small little quirks, and then seeing those same quirks in other missions... can be depressing. (Biggest pet peeve, 5 fighters available in the mission loadout!)

But if I manage to let the small things go, I just enjoy the mission for what it is. When I'm in a mission, I don't think "oh he's using this sexp", my mind is on having fun, not the underlying events. Its sort of two different worlds.

[karajorma]

I find that this effect doesn't relate to FS2 only either. I've played quite a few games recently which left me fuming at the poor design choices made by the game designers.

[Droid803]

Well, I don't think it changes my perception much, but there are some times where I feel like trying to break the mission because I feel I have a grasp of how it was built.
Sometimes it doesn't break, and I'm like "Oh, good FREDding, you have bested me". Other times it breaks, and I go "hah, I win! ... wait crap I'm stuck."

[mjn.mixael]

Well, I don't think it changes my perception much, but there are some times where I feel like trying to break the mission because I feel I have a grasp of how it was built.
Sometimes it doesn't break, and I'm like "Oh, good FREDding, you have bested me". Other times it breaks, and I go "hah, I win! ... wait crap I'm stuck."

 

[Mongoose]

I know a good FREDder is supposed to account for every single possible result the player could find themselves in, but sometimes I feel like if someone's being that pants-on-head stupid on purpose, they deserve to have to replay the thing.

[General Battuta]

Probably, but there are few things cooler than realizing that the level designer really did think of that.

[NGTM-1R]

It's improved my appreciation for complex design, but oddly not dealt much with good/bad; perhaps because I regard them as separate from complexity.

[Black Wolf]

It's improved my appreciation for complex design, but oddly not dealt much with good/bad; perhaps because I regard them as separate from complexity.

This is absolutely true. The most complex mission in Frontlines is also unquestionably our worst. Really, really good missions always have to.have a degree of complexity, but there's no equivalent rule that says complex missions are always good.

[Lepanto]

Personally, I tend to only notice FREDding/modding if it's bad. Insofar as the campaign is delivering a good FS experience, I can go with the flow and I don't think meta too much, unless I see a blatant example of railroading or something (invincible Carthage beams in Delenda Est, for instance). When I'm dealing with a bad-quality campaign, though, there's no FS experience for me to get wrapped up in, and I just get irritated with the FREDder for shoddy (IMO, at least) work.

[General Battuta]

Between the player-facing 'lockdown' notice and the subsystem armor I think that's about all you can do to disguise a guardianed beam weapon.