[Dark Hunter]

Both as a teaser for my campaign and as a chance to get some feedback on my so-far-very-undeveloped FREDding skills, I'm releasing one mission of my up-and-coming campaign, Dreamcatcher: Creation! 
This would be up elsewhere, but... Game Warden has been very slow in getting back to me about my request for project hosting... 



Anyhoo, here are the requirements:

-InfernoR1 + SCP Patch. This is one of the few missions I have which do not utilize custom stuff, so it should run perfectly well on a normal Inferno setup.

-Lightspeed's Nebulae. I'm using one of Singh's very pretty Emporium Backgrounds, with a few added touches of my own.

-Notice: This was FREDded in the belief that you will be using a MS voice to voice the dialogue. If you are not using MS Sam (or some other MS voice), the conversations will likely flow far too fast, and the mission won't make too much sense.

Feedback? Keep in mind that I am still a beginner FREDder...


Campaign-wise, this will take place about halfway through. I don't think much of the story is reveled, though...

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[TopAce]

First, using the Inferno release is not a good idea to begin with. Those who do not have Inferno will most likely not download Inferno just to play a single mission. Second, you can simply add delays between your messages to avoid message flowing when people don't use simulated speech.

I didn't play the mission because I don't have Inferno and I don't want to download some hundred megs of files for one mission. Take my advice on the messages part, I always do that and I think it's pretty fundamental.

[Dark Hunter]

IF you'd read the post, you'd see that this part of a campaign, and it was merely a teaser, if you will. This campaign idea will not work on a non-Inferno setup.

Should've posted this in the Inferno forum...

As for the messages, they do have delays. For some reason, the delays never seem to work unless the voice is activated. It's probably a bug. Believe you me, I have tried time and again to get the delays working without the voice, but FS2 simply doesn't seem to read them.

Idea just occurred: how long are the delays (in milliseconds) that you put in? The delays I put in average about 4000 milliseconds (4 seconds). Maybe I'm just not putting in long enough delays?

[crucial_soul]

First, using the Inferno release is not a good idea to begin with. Those who do not have Inferno will most likely not download Inferno just to play a single mission.

I am with TopAce, i dont have inferno and i wont download it to play this mission, i suggest not having the infernoR1 in your production, iam pretty sure u can do with out it.

And for the delay between messages, when u place a delay you must consider how long it will take to actually read the messages, eg: lets say there is a message that takes a person 5 seconds to read then you want a delay of 2 seconds between that message and the next, you dont place a delay of 2 seconds you place a delay of 7 seconds.

Freespace reads the commands in an order, so if u had:

message
DELAY (2 seconds)
message

it will display the 1 st message, have a delay of 2 seconds then display the 2nd message which is not enough to read the 1st message,

but if u had a delay of 7 seconds then it would be enough for the player to read the 1st message. freespace doesn't consider the length of the message it just displays it, you must command freespace on how long to place the speech for (with delays).

Hope that helps

[Dark Hunter]

Thanks, I think it does. 


Now: I was under the impression that a lot of people already had Inferno. Obviously I was mistaken. I invited feedback, so I must take your suggstions into consideration.

Unfortunately, the campaign is far too far along for me to easily port it out of Inferno. I would have to re-FRED all the missions I've done thus far and completely re-do several key plot points that the entire stroy revolves around in order to make it work in the retail shipset. In fact, I'd have to drop practically the entire story because it takes place in the Inferno (R1) continuity. Sorry, but that is simply not something I am willing to do.

Whether you believe the descision to FRED a campaign in Inferno was a good idea or not, the fact remains that it was and is my decision, and I won't be altering it.

From now on I request that only those who have actually played the mission post feedback. Thank you.

[asyikarea51]

Usually I time my messages by actually speaking out the dialogue, while at the same time counting the dialogue length with one hand.

It's not accurate, but it's the rough method I use. But IMO this method only helps if voice acting is planned in the later parts of development (design mission first WITH leeways for real voice acting, then do the dialogues when all the missions are done with).

I have INF, but not the Nebulae, unless ShivanSpS's pack somehow came with it. I'm also a super-beginner FREDder... started out from FS1 but never made any "full" missions... didn't even know how to use the events editor at the time LOL XD

[Dark Hunter]

The nebulae aren't exactly required, but the mission looks very empty without them.


I'll experiment with the dialogue, and when the campaign's ready for release (be a while yet) I'll make sure it works with no MS voices.

[spartan_0214]

When you expect release Hunter?

[Snail]

I've finally had time to actually play some FreeSpace, and I just played your mission. I can see how the campaign is going to form up, and I personally am looking forward to playing your campaign. I think that you need more proof-reading of your missions, I saw a few typos here and there, but on the whole a well-put together mission.

My gripes are mostly minor, but the most nagging one was some of the dialogue. The part where Command tells one of Alpha wing (or was it Gaia?) to shut up or we'll go and blast you wasn't very appropriate. That leaves the impression that the GTVA (GTVEA?) the impression of somesort of dictatorship, which I didn't like. I also don't think that Hammer of Light Vasudan guy should've hesitated to call the Shivans 'destroyers'. Vasudans are super-religious, and if you're willing to go join a rebellion i don't think that you would make such a mistake (it's like if you're a converted Muslim and you say 'Jesus - I mean Mohammed'). My next gripe is the Command animation head. It should be using CM1, but it is using CM2. In Inferno, CM1 is used for Command and CM2 is used for ships. Just one last gripe. Will you be using GTD Kenny, HOLD Raa for individual ship names? I don't really object to this but I'm just wondering.

Anyway, to sum it up I liked your mission and I'm looking forward to the Campaign's release.

[Dark Hunter]

You raise some interesting points. Ok then, I'll improve the dialogue a bit.

Command ani's: For the longest time I didn't realize that CM-2 was the Command guy, and not CM-1. Probably just forgot to change it in that mission. I have been using CM-2 for Command for a while now.

Names: No, I won't be putting the GTD, etc. in front of the target names. If I did in that mission it was a typo.


I'm glad someone approves. 
Most missions are of course a little more action-intensive. That was part of a major plot point, and I'll likely be expanding that mission a bit.

@Spartan: I'm tentatively aiming for a late February release, but don't hold me to that. Don't know how long it'll take to FRED the remaining missions, and I have to get the website up, and figure out download options. Because I think TopAce and the others have a legitimate point about it being a pain to download. I've considered making it a patch to R1, what do you think of that?

[spartan_0214]

@Spartan: I'm tentatively aiming for a late February release, but don't hold me to that. Don't know how long it'll take to FRED the remaining missions, and I have to get the website up, and figure out download options. Because I think TopAce and the others have a legitimate point about it being a pain to download. I've considered making it a patch to R1, what do you think of that?

Meh, it's your campaign....Oh yea, I've gotta go dig up that e-mail and work on that mission for ya.... \chuckles....