[Warnstaff]

Good news guys. I gone back to using the april 21st build for FRED (I think it's the 04/21 one) and have not had any problems so far. If it keeps up like this, then the campaign will be back on at full speed again!

What were you using? The 21st is the newest build of FRED apart from one I released a couple of days ago.

The one I am now using is definetly the april 21st build. I'm not sure which one I was using before though. I renamed it some time ago fo a reason I can't remember . I'd post it, but it's too large, even in zipped/rar format

On the bright side, the campaign is comming along nicely now. Now that I'm not fighting FRED every time I do something, I've been able to get 2 more misisons done (including one pretty hard mission). I'd be farther along, but as said before, I was fighting with FRED.


neoterran;

I'll definetly have a look into those. If I can figure out (and I likely will, once I start working on it), I'll try to et those included as "fun weapons" available for optional download (like the first version).

[Akalamanaia]

http://www.penguinbomb.com/lightspeed/SMW03weapons.html

You might want to check out the shivan weapons on this page by lightspeed, those might be fun to incorporate in your mod.

Darn those look whacked...so...not...FS2.

[neoterran]

Good news guys. I gone back to using the april 21st build for FRED (I think it's the 04/21 one) and have not had any problems so far. If it keeps up like this, then the campaign will be back on at full speed again!

What were you using? The 21st is the newest build of FRED apart from one I released a couple of days ago.

The one I am now using is definetly the april 21st build. I'm not sure which one I was using before though. I renamed it some time ago fo a reason I can't remember . I'd post it, but it's too large, even in zipped/rar format

On the bright side, the campaign is comming along nicely now. Now that I'm not fighting FRED every time I do something, I've been able to get 2 more misisons done (including one pretty hard mission). I'd be farther along, but as said before, I was fighting with FRED.


neoterran;

I'll definetly have a look into those. If I can figure out (and I likely will, once I start working on it), I'll try to et those included as "fun weapons" available for optional download (like the first version).

Cool. If you don't like they way they look, they'll be optional people.

[S-99]

Lightspeeds shivan weapons are sweet. Very alien too. Those would be awesome in the mod, and now i also know why i haven't seen those other shivan lasers in the fs2 campaign. Also, thinking very probable here, but the shivans realistically would probably have more than 3 types of lasers. Shivans lasers with the light, the heavy, and the mega laser...the more powerful they are, the greater the time is before another laser is shot. The shivan light laser i was fond of, it's like a subach, but it seemed weaker than one
The fact that they have strength in numbers is why they are so powerful, just doesn't seem to cut it anymore. Shivans do have weapons, lots of them, and i would hope to god an alien species would have more than 3 types of a weapon for use on every single ship. Just trying to think about it in a realistic logic. There's tons of shivans, they have powerful warships, powerful bombers, great fighters like the mara and dragon, superior subspace technology, and yet for lasers they have only 3 types ranging in power which can be a limit in potential when you're not serving in huge numbers

[neoterran]

I can tell you from experience that half the fun of a new mod is seeing what kinds of weird and exotic new weapons you can use. Come on, you can't tell me firing a Subach HL-11 variant in Renegade Resurgence, or using Hurricane missiles in Inferno, or the Gauss Railgun in COW, or enjoying how much fun an Avenger is when you're so used to Prometheus - Shivans deserve no less. Go ahead and make it an optional 'fun' vp pack if you really want, but the campaign deserves its own personality, and you don't even have to make graphics for it.. what more can you ask for.

[Akalamanaia]

Well i personally want to play a campaign that feels shivan, not just a another variant of GTVA, where you can solo along and destroy capital ships alone like their cheese, or destroy countless of fighter squadrons without any backup. Shivans are about the numbers, and the subspace technology they possess. The only edge they got over the GTVA is that they know more about subspace, and beam weapons, but GTVA has better fighters, and laser turrets. Shivans are about numbers when it comes to fighters..

The campaign has its own personality right now, its not just a another run-off-the-mill GTVA clone campaign, it actually is diffrent. Your weapons are weaker, but you also have more squad mates. Some of the words are changed, and plenty of other minor details..seriusly if you just want a campaign thats a clone of the GTVA gameplay, why don't you just play normal Freespace 2? Some of us here would actually want a campaign that feels Shivan, not a campaign thats GTVA in Shivan clothing.

[neoterran]

Dude, i just don't understand that attitude. Hell, leave the weapons exactly the way they are, weak , if you want, just use Lightspeeds hand tailored and much nicer looking weapons for them. He even named them. I think it adds so much to the game. But hey, it's not up to us, it's up to the campaign author.

[Warnstaff]

When I have completed the shivan nebula campaign (cappella campaign will be soon after) I'll get to work on the new weapons, and as said before, I'll make them optional. Because there are new weapons, I will have to modify the missions to allow them, so a re-download of the campaign would be needed for it's use. By default however, the campaign will be balanced for traditional shivan weapons, not the "fun" weapons (I might redo them post-release though for the fun weapons).

If I, for whatever reason can't get them to work, I'll try to enlist a team to get them working (not yet though). Also, I havn't been able to find a disclaimer anywhere on lightspeed's site......... I would feel more comfortable knowing for sure if it's alright to use them

Oh, a quick update on the actual campaign status: I've been working on mission 5 like a mad man, and it's very difficult (not impossible). Lots of ships (nearly BoES) and lots of fun Unfortionetly, it's taking of time. You wouldn't believe the amount of bugs that were in it But it (mission 5) should be 100% sometime today. I'd estemate that within the timeframe of 2 weeks that the nebula campaign will be released (DO NOT HOLD ME TO THIS DATE! It's a guess that's not accounting for possible major problems).

[Warnstaff]

Hey guys, I've been think...... the current shivan campagin I'm doing is being bogged down by errors, crashes, and my inability to easily tell the story from the shivan's point of view. I'm think about scrapping what I've got, and starting on a campaign where the player attacks the Vega-Cappella node bound destroying, and destroys it, thereby keep 1 node open for the shivans to swarm into the home systes of the GTVA. Though this won't solve my technical issues, it will allow me to freeform ideas and story, which I think is far more intresting. Be easier for me as well

[aldo_14]

Hey guys, I've been think...... the current shivan campagin I'm doing is being bogged down by errors, crashes, and my inability to easily tell the story from the shivan's point of view. I'm think about scrapping what I've got, and starting on a campaign where the player attacks the Vega-Cappella node bound destroying, and destroys it, thereby keep 1 node open for the shivans to swarm into the home systes of the GTVA. Though this won't solve my technical issues, it will allow me to freeform ideas and story, which I think is far more intresting. Be easier for me as well

Bear in mind the Shivans could conceivably swarm in from any number of systems, as in FS1.

[Warnstaff]

True, but the Shivan's still have to use jump nodes, and they aren't anywhere near the Ross 128 and Ikeya uncharted jump points in the main campaign, and it apears, from what we (or I) can tell from the main FS2 campaign, that there are not ay uncharted jump points from Cappella or Gamma Draconis, hence, the Vega and/or Epsilon Pegasi nodes would have to remain open in order for them to not have to take a very long way around.

[aldo_14]

How do you know there aren't any uncharted jump nodes?

Vega was one of the main areas of fighting in FS1, based on the briefs; I think you could make a pretty good case for it if you wanted to.  Antares was, IIRC, the first contact the player makes, too, which would be another decent site;

[GTD Galatea

Antares System

1/18/35

The Shivans

Terran Command has confirmed the existence of a new species. Until further contact is established, Command has designated them "Shivans".

The Shivans have inflicted heavy casualties to both Terran and Vasudan forces in the Beta Cygni and Vega systems, and appear to be making a rapid push into other key systems along the Terran-Vasudan front. All contact has been lost with our forces in the Ikeya and Ross 128 systems.

[Warnstaff]

How do you know there are uncharted jump nodes from Cappella to Vega or Epsilon Pegasi?

In the second last mission of FS2, Cappella had 3 nodes, only one of which was used by Shivans: the Cappella - Gamma Draconis jump node. GTVA destroyed the Vega-Cappella and Epsilon Pegasi-Cappella jump nodes, and the campaign ended before it would be revealed that the Shivans could use any possible uncharted nodes from Cappella. The only known uncharted nodes, IIRC, are in Ross 128, Beta Cygni, Ikeya, and between Antares and Deneb (Shivan fleet circumvented the blockade the antares blockade and gained Deneb in FS1 prior to Vasuda Prime's bombardment, or was it Beta Aquilae....... I'll have to comfirm that).

[aldo_14]

How do you know there are uncharted jump nodes from Cappella to Vega or Epsilon Pegasi?

In the second last mission of FS2, Cappella had 3 nodes, only one of which was used by Shivans: the Cappella - Gamma Draconis jump node. GTVA destroyed the Vega-Cappella and Epsilon Pegasi-Cappella jump nodes, and the campaign ended before it would be revealed that the Shivans could use any possible uncharted nodes from Cappella. The only known uncharted nodes, IIRC, are in Ross 128, Beta Cygni, Ikeya, and between Antares and Deneb (Shivan fleet circumvented the blockade the antares blockade and gained Deneb in FS1 prior to Vasuda Prime's bombardment, or was it Beta Aquilae....... I'll have to comfirm that).

Absence of proof is not proof of absence. 

Um... these are uncharted nodes, after all, hence not on any chart nor known. 

And even if the GTVA did 'find' uncharted nodes, they would have no real way of knowing which ones the Shivans used, because they would a) be unable to travel through them and b) probably wouldn't know how stable a node has to be for the Shivans to use.

So it's perfectly fair to bung them in.  Hell, any sort of campaign from a Shivan POV is effectively rewriting canon anyways, so it's not exactly a problem to make a reasonable assumption that there are uncharted nodes between x and y should you wish or need to.

[Warnstaff]

It's true that no proof of somethig doesn't mean it's not there (UFOs for example, prior to 1947). But I'm trying to keep within Cannon... to a point (Vega node remains open, which changes ). If there was however even a mention of uncharted or unstable nodes anywere near Cappella, I'd use those instead.


On a slightly diffrent topic, I've managed to get the first mission of this changed campaign all but complete, and FRED is behaving, somewhat. Backround nebulas a purrdy. I don't remember what Vega looked like in retail, and I'm so lazy to go get it, so I'm making it up as a go along (Yes, light side of planets will face the sun and be in front of nebulas).

[NGTM-1R]

You know, if they came in through Vega...

Capella via Gamma Drac, anyone?

[aldo_14]

You know, if they came in through Vega...

Capella via Gamma Drac, anyone?

Aye, but it means that node destabilised (for some reason) between FS1 and FS2 and also wasn't detected by the GTSC,er, Eriksson (I think) during its surveys.

[Warnstaff]

The Knossos portal the stabalized the node from Gamma Draconis to the shivan nebula, but was inactive, and not discovered when the GTSC Erikson scanned the system 15 years prior to the events of the FS2 campaign. The only reason it became active again was because the NTC Trinity activated it via Bosch's orders. How he knew it was there isn't known to me.

[karajorma]

How he knew it was there is one of the big mysteries of FS2. Like pretty much everything else connected to Bosch

[Warnstaff]

Heh, true. Still trying to decide how be a role he will play in my new campaign. Open to suggestions.

P.S. Whats with the mustache on that guy? And the hat? He looks like a French general the some old WW1 and WW2 films.