[Shaamaan]

I'll probably get mashed and bashed for not posting this in a more appropriate thread, but here goes...

The thing I really miss is some sort of "jump in" effect on my ship when I start a mission. Currently, when you press 'commit', you're just there... somehow. Which is somewhat weird. An animation of exiting subspace would not only be visually cool, but it would add to the immersion of the game.

PS. Mind you, some missions are better suited for this than others... certain missions don't need this.

[Snail]

Well I always thought you warp in and then you slow down, and then you regain control of your ship.

This is possible using cutscene-sexps like they are used in Mobius' campaigns.

[Shaamaan]

I was actually thinking of immersion... remember that special ops mission where the guy screams at you "Dive! Dive! Dive!" (Into the Lion's Den)? Right now, it's like this:
- *reads briefing* Oh cool. I get a special mission... wicked.
- *clicks Commit*
- What the...? *suddenly appears in this new sector with a big ass ship on a collision course*

I think there really should be something between clicking Commit and actual battle. Oh, and I didn't mention this, but it would be most wicked (as in, cool), if this was actually done from the cockpit view. Not from a 3-person camera showing you enter a system, but actually witnessing the entry from within the ship...

I don't know if I'm asking for too much, but this is my little request.

[Snail]

You can already do this with mock ships and cutscene sexps, but it would be masochistic to do them for every mission.

[Mustang19]

Use a simple fade-in cutscene SEXP w/ a subspace sound. Not difficult at all. Alternatively, set the player to AI control for the first few seconds to make him fly straight ahead, and create a warp affect right in front of him.

Would be simple to do, but it really wouldn't add very much.

[Snail]

fade-in and fade-out don't seem to work.

[Nuke]

i think most of the time when a game has something like this i usually end up escaping through it because it sucks some time away from actual play. sure its cool but after the 10 reload while trying to stubborny beat bear baiting perfectly on insane, such a feature would only piss you off :F

[Mustang19]

Many people have trouble with the advanced cutscene SEXPs. You need to go to File>Format>FS2_open (or something like that). FRED Open will, by default, save in the FS2 retail format, which will ignore any fade-in/fade-out SEXPs (among other things). Many people are confused with the cutscene SEXPs, which is a shame, as they're really cool tools. Someone (maybe me) needs to make a good, popular cutscene tutorial.

And amen to Nuke; WC-style games have succeeded with having the player take off from a carrier and have to fly waypoints into battle, but I prefer the FS style where you pop right into the action. Any warp-in feature should be at the mission designer's discretion, as it will loose its novelty fast.

[karajorma]

i think most of the time when a game has something like this i usually end up escaping through it because it sucks some time away from actual play. sure its cool but after the 10 reload while trying to stubborny beat bear baiting perfectly on insane, such a feature would only piss you off :F

Agreed. The cutscenes in Wing Commander for instance pissed me off no end as if I'd died I wanted to get straight back to replaying the mission straight away without having to wait for a lot of graphical extras. One of the best things FS2 did was to allow you to replay a mission without having to go through the briefing again. I very much doubt this was accidental. It would be a shame to piss away this feature by forcing people to sit through the same cutscene several times.

[Shaamaan]

*sigh*

Then perhaps it's just that one singe mission that has me longing for a warp-in effect... 

[jr2]

Hmm.  I believe this is a perfect candidate for a launcher flag!!  If it could be implemented, ofc.  Then, you have it off by default, and the few that like it can turn it on (and off) at will.

[Nuke]

i have nothing against something subtle like an energy flash and a sound effect

[akenbosch]

like the warp flash, but only right infront of the player (and it fills the whole screen).

codeable 

[colecampbell666]

Hmm.  I believe this is a perfect candidate for a launcher flag!!  If it could be implemented, ofc.  Then, you have it off by default, and the few that like it can turn it on (and off) at will.

But if the mission got screwed up by it...

[jr2]

Hmm.  I believe this is a perfect candidate for a launcher flag!!  If it could be implemented, ofc.  Then, you have it off by default, and the few that like it can turn it on (and off) at will.

But if the mission got screwed up by it...

...You could turn off the launcher flag.    I win!

[colecampbell666]

N00bs may not know what caused them to become a fly on the flak guns of a Sath, though. They may not know that the flag is what triggers the cutscene.

[jr2]

N00bs may not know what caused them to become a fly on the flak guns of a Sath, though. They may not know that the flag is what triggers the cutscene.

...It's off by default.  If they turned it on, they'd best know how to turn it off.    I still win.

[colecampbell666]

Fine then. [Arnold Schwarchenegger]I'll be back![/Arnold Schwarchenegger]

Something I don't like is how n00bs pop in, start a topic to ask for something, and leave never to be seen again while in some cases people work hard to do what they want.

[Inquisitor]

*ahem*

Careful with the "n00b" label, it seems to get tossed around by people who were, at one time, n00bish in their own right

Carry on.

[WMCoolmon]

Hmm.  I believe this is a perfect candidate for a launcher flag!!  If it could be implemented, ofc.  Then, you have it off by default, and the few that like it can turn it on (and off) at will.

No, it's just a perfect candidate for responsible FREDding. All these little effects that seem like 'personal taste' can easily be used to add variety to missions, as long as they're used properly. Like if you wanted to use a warp-in for the first level of a campaign, or only for a mission that takes place immediately after a red-alert style subspace mission, I'm sure it wouldn't piss anybody off too much. And it would be much more interesting than a launcher flag, which would become worthless after the 50th time it happened.

Sorry, more often than not Launcher flags seem to be a quick and dirty solution because either some coder () or some group of modders don't feel like putting a little creativity into figuring out how they could use a feature in another way.

For example, I put in the -nomotiondebris Launcher flag because I thought the debris looked crappy and very deliberate. But imagine if you wanted to make a level that took place between galaxies, or in a junk field - you could very easily and very subtly dictate the overall feel of those missions by varying the amount of motion debris.



Now granted, I'm still glad that the flag is there - because it really sucks when you're trying to take screenshots and this massive pixellated rock obscures a one-in-a-million shot of an HTL ship.

But I don't see that as being a problem here...