[pyro-manic]

It is possible to make decent BoE missions, but most end up being very dull. There are a few good ones around, though. The second-last mission in Inferno is one (though I found it simply too hard), and there's a mission which Goober found in the archives called Project Roadblock which is very good.

Lone Knight: good luck with that, though getting voice-acting done will be tricky....

[TopAce]

Originally posted by Mongoose
Considering the Battle of Endor was my favorite sci-fi space battle of all time, I'm always curious as to why its name is used as an insult. If the Star Wars mod could pull off the actual Battle of Endor, I think it would go over amazingly well.

We would be glad if we were able to release anything at all. There is no way we can make a Battle of Endor mission with all the canon class ships.

[pyro-manic]

Originally posted by Mongoose
Considering the Battle of Endor was my favorite sci-fi space battle of all time, I'm always curious as to why its name is used as an insult. If the Star Wars mod could pull off the actual Battle of Endor, I think it would go over amazingly well.

Because a mission with the same characteristics would be, erm, crap. In a nutshell. The player would have to just sit there watching the explosions. You'd be better off with a cutscene instead.

[TopAce]

^
Yes, that's also a point.

but let's see what you are going to do. In retrospect we are cleverer.

[Mongoose]

I wouldn't mind too much just flying around and looking at explosions, as long as I got to take down a few TIEs while I'm at it.

After replaying Derelict, I think the second-to-last mission could almost be qualified as a BOE mission where the player has an active role.  There are several Shivan capital ships in the area at a time, but the player has at there disposal three Mjolnirs slaved to TAGs.  You get to play an active role in the massive beam battle.  I don't know about anyone else, but I found that mission to be very enjoyable.

[Unknown Target]

I had an idea for a BoE mission. You have three small fleets (about 10 cap ships) on each side, making six "fleets". All have their adjoining fighter wings. The entire mission unfolds as the three fleets split to accomplish different objectives, and the player and his wing end up getting called back and forth with things like "Assist First fleet, escort third fleet to location, launch an assault with second fleet". It's too detailed to explain right now, but then it eventually climaxes in the middle, when everyone meets in a giant flanking maneuver.

[Dark RevenantX]

A mission like that would span across 50-150 kilometers.  How is Alpha 1 going to find the other fleets?  The scanners scan only so far.  It would really suck if you bumped into an enemy fleet with no backup!  Some of the fleets would be so far away that they shouldn't be rendered, but it makes little difference.  Something that far away would be 25 polygons, anyway.
And, exactly how large is the FS2 "playing box"?  It would be cool if you could try to search the entire mission for the secret cargo box hidden among the 50 other boxes.

[Setekh]

Originally posted by Lone Knight
Hmm...well, you guys have really got me thinkin'!  I've decided not only to make a single mission but a whole (small) campaign that will place you as a fighter pilot stationed in Capella during the whole crisis.  Your missions will include the evacuation of the Capella planet(s).  Anyone know how many colonized planets there are in Capella at this time?

It will be a series of missions, and I hope to have at least two BOE stlye missions that work.

I'd like to have actual audio voices for it, so if anyone knows someone who does that, or who wants to help me with the voices, feel free to leave a post here or to email me at

[email protected]

if you know anyone who does voices, etc inform them of this.

Just a small word of advice to you which you can choose to ignore if you really want: start small, and build your ambitions after that. Start with that single mission and build it, make it great; then maybe move on to a few mission stringed together, see if you can make that work. Studio voices are very, very far down the line - if they were easy and straightforward to do, you would see every single mod hosted here using them. It turns out that hardly any of them, not even some of the biggest ones, have voice acting included. Maybe that gives you a hint towards the difficulty of the task you're setting out to accomplish.

Not to diminish your enthusiasm, mind you. Just be smart about it and begin with baby steps.

[pyro-manic]

Originally posted by Unknown Target
I had an idea for a BoE mission. You have three small fleets (about 10 cap ships) on each side, making six "fleets". All have their adjoining fighter wings. The entire mission unfolds as the three fleets split to accomplish different objectives, and the player and his wing end up getting called back and forth with things like "Assist First fleet, escort third fleet to location, launch an assault with second fleet". It's too detailed to explain right now, but then it eventually climaxes in the middle, when everyone meets in a giant flanking maneuver.

I like the idea, but I wouldn't use "fleets" as such. Squadrons would be a better  idea (read up on the Battle of Jutland for how it worked in a modern sea battle - the last ever traditional fleet-vs-fleet battle in fact) - capship wings in effect, that carry out tasks as groups. Cruisers would be excellent ships for this - a squadron of three or four Fenris/Aeolus together would make a powerful unit, and their size would mean that you wouldn't be filling the playing space with capship (destroyers would be far too big).

One destroyer or carrier would make up the command group, with perhaps a cruiser or two in attendance. Then you could have a corvette squadron, that would be the main battle unit (speed and firepower). Then two or more cruiser squadrons would be the "cover", providing fire support or fighter suppression where needed, and plug any gaps/ launch flank attacks. The player would have to fend off bombers, destroy beam turrents (love that smiley!), disable certain ships etc.

Lone Knight: heed the words of Steak, for he is wise indeed.

[Dark RevenantX]

Fleet 1 should be made up of three Fenrisi, three Leviathans, two Mentus, and two Deimoses.  Fleet 2 would be four Deimoses and three Sobeks.  Fleet 3 would be made up of two Deimoses, two Orions, and two Hecates.  In each fleet, one ship should have some weapons replaced with stronger versions.  For example, One of the second fleet's Sobeks could have its AAAF beams exchanged for AAAH beams except for one which would become a SVas beam.  The hitpoints would be increased and the explosion intensified in order to make the changes realalistic.  Just a few ideas, though.

[Unknown Target]

The problem with most BoE missions is that the designer invariably ends up giving the player some lame objective like take care of the never ending stream of respawning fighters.

A cool BoE mission would have the player actually involved in the main fight, by taking out subsystems, launching suprise attacks, etc. The mission should also take awhile, a good 5-10 minutes of constant changing, rather than the short three minute boiling pot of explosions that most of thse types of missions turn out to be.


EDIT: If you want to make a good BoE mission, go play Homeworld 2 or Nexus: The Jupiter Incident, and mold it after those fleet battles

[Dark RevenantX]

Don't use BReds, BFReds, LRBGreens, or BFGreens.  All of those are quite powerful.  If you have to use one of those, you need a very good reason.

[pyro-manic]

Originally posted by Dark RevenantX
Fleet 1 should be made up of three Fenrisi, three Leviathans, two Mentus, and two Deimoses.  Fleet 2 would be four Deimoses and three Sobeks.  Fleet 3 would be made up of two Deimoses, two Orions, and two Hecates.  In each fleet, one ship should have some weapons replaced with stronger versions.  For example, One of the second fleet's Sobeks could have its AAAF beams exchanged for AAAH beams except for one which would become a SVas beam.  The hitpoints would be increased and the explosion intensified in order to make the changes realalistic.  Just a few ideas, though.

I think that's far too many ships, and too many very large ships at that. They'd take up so much space that the player would be spending more time flying to, from and around ships to actually do much fighting. It'd be a horrendous task trying to make that fun. That said, if you think you can pull it off then go for it...

UT: Well said. A mission like this would take an awful lot of scripting to get it working well.

[Lone Knight]

Hey, just wondering, wasn't there a user-made campaign that involved a virus of some sort being spread around space?  I think I can remember playing it years back, but I've played so many I don't know if it was about a virus.

Setekh> I hear ya, bud.  I'm planning on taking heed to your words.

[Dark RevenantX]

You could have a dogfight go inbetween two destroyers that are duking it out.

[pyro-manic]

Originally posted by Lone Knight
Hey, just wondering, wasn't there a user-made campaign that involved a virus of some sort being spread around space?  I think I can remember playing it years back, but I've played so many I don't know if it was about a virus.

Setekh> I hear ya, bud.  I'm planning on taking heed to your words.

I think you're referring to The Apocalypse Project, specifically the Beast (IIRC), the virus from the Homeworld expansion pack.

http://www.3dactionplanet.com/hlp/hosted/tap/

It's been rather quiet recently, but I think they're still working on it...

[NGTM-1R]

Originally posted by Unknown Target

A cool BoE mission would have the player actually involved in the main fight, by taking out subsystems, launching suprise attacks, etc. The mission should also take awhile, a good 5-10 minutes of constant changing, rather than the short three minute boiling pot of explosions that most of thse types of missions turn out to be.
 

*coughhackcoughforthesecondtime*

[Woolie Wool]

Originally posted by Goober5000
Battle of Endor Syndrome

Keep in mind that this was written over 6 years ago and geared toward FS1 missions.  Some stuff has changed since then... e.g. FS2 has beams and modern computers can handle more ships.  Some stuff has not... e.g. balance and design.

A good BOE mission is not impossible, just very difficult.

I think it would be a lot easier to do right in the TBP mod, with flyable Whitestars.