[hip63]

Hey MAG, just a thread for beta test feedback for the EBW.

OK, still trying to win/survive the first mission but WOW, this campaign really hits space running!

I like the atmosphere and no bugs yet (for mission one anywho)

If this is the 'easy' version, I would sure hate see the hard one!

hip63

[madaboutgames]

LOL, just so long as its not the demo, you will be fine:)

And dont forget everyone NO SPOILERS

[General Battuta]

I'm playing the version that was recently released to voice actors (and maybe others?)

I...don't like it. I have a really hard time affecting the outcome of missions. Every mission so far has required me to destroy a number of Brakiri capital ships before they destroy friendly vessels, but I don't have the armament, wingmen, or positioning to do that. I can't even disable weapons in time to affect battles, in general. It's not that I'm a bad pilot -- I'm quite good. But there's only so much damage you can dish out in a fixed period of time.

The only exception was the first mission, where I successfully took out all the enemy capital ships without losing friendlies -- only to realize I was intended to lose that mission, since there were unlimited waves of enemy fighters jumping in.

I'm frustrated, I find the missions generally repetitive, and I have a feeling I'm rapidly being shunted into the losing branch of the campaign.

Spoiler:

I can't save Altair Station or its escorts. I certainly can't defend the convoy in the next mission -- I completed it once with three transports surviving, but that's the most I've ever saved. And in every case it's because there are Brakiri warships dealing massive damage with their beam weapons, and doing so faster than I can hope to counterattack. If you're going to give me a lot of wingmates, at least give them effective anti-capital ship weapons, and give me the capability to order them around.

It is, however, bug-free so far.

[madaboutgames]

Which version are you playing, demo or the full version?

The demo was very hard and as you described but the full version of it is however MUCH easier as the beta testers agree. 

I suggest if it is as hard as you make out then you try lowering the difficulty setting to suit your mental capabilities and comprehension of the game and its scenario.

As for every mission ends killing cap ships etc - This is true for the first 2 missions (well you dont have to kill any cap ships to complete the mission you only have to survive.) followed by 3 missions which dont involve destroying cap ships. On the 6th mission you dont have to kill any of the cap ships to sucessfully complete the mission.  Then mission 7 the one you refer to in your spoiler , again you dont have to kill any cap ships to complete this mission.  If you dont its likely the station will be lost and you are pushed towards the bad ending.  If you do you could save the station and progress well through the war.  You also refer to mission 8 on your spoiler and yes you do loose a lot of transports, you are meant to and again you dont have to take out any cap ships to complete the mission.  After this again there are some which involve destroying the cap ships and some dont. But dont forget you are on the 8th mission in a campaign where you will play through around 16 missions out of a possible 26.   

And as for being repetative what do you refer to? The mission diversity through the campiagn is far from being repetative as Im sure the beta testers would agree.   And after all you are on mission 8.

It is, however, bug-free so far.

Once again this is also inaccurate, As Im sure the beta testers would agree.  Im glad your not one of the beta testers

Anyhow I am very busy fixing some of the bugs which have been brought to my attention (the ones you didnt find) so I would just like to say Thank you for your constructive critisism and your own personal views which is everones right,  they have been noted but will not be as helpful as the beta testers feedback whose job it is to post accurate information & comments in this thread.  They had been chosen to do this task, where you have just come along and obtained it ignoring the respect of the e-mail which was sent to not post any spoliers. 

Hope you enjoy the full game when its released, as the beta you have curiously got hold of is only the beta

Shaun Williams
Project Leader

[FUBAR-BDHR]

Might have just hit a biggie.  Not with the mission but with the engine.  Playing Retreat I made it to the end but wanted to do some cleanup.  Turned glide on and flipped around to take out a couple of ships and the warpout sequence engaged.  Game just kept playing and I couldn't do anything.  Had to ctrl-alt-del and end task. 

[General Battuta]

I suggest if it is as hard as you make out then you try lowering the difficulty setting to suit your mental capabilities and comprehension of the game and its scenario.

Ease off. I'm not stupid and you know it, and there's no call for personal attacks. I'm an excellent Freespace player and a good judge of difficulty.

As for the rest of your response, I've been careful not to post spoilers outside tags. The criticisms I offered are valuable and well-founded, and by offering them, I've just done my part as a community member. I hope they're helpful.

My issue isn't that it's too hard. The actual tasks involved are pretty easy -- it's nowhere near as difficult as some missions in other campaigns.

I have complaints about the design of these tasks, however. There are too many 'kill all enemies' objectives, and since the enemies are sorted into large wings, it's hard to designate important targets with the F3 menu -- making it hard to target advanced frigates and Brakiri cruisers, or to order your wingmen after them. Second, because you don't get to choose your loadout and you can't command most of your wingmates in some missions, killing or disarming capital ships is a chore. Third, the difference between a mission you are intended to fail every time and a mission that is simply quite difficult is not easy to see.

Overall, I think that much of the campaign so far suffers from Battle of Endor syndrome: too many capital ships and too many fighters swarming around with unclear tasks. The capital ship battles rely too heavily on the attack AI and not enough on careful designer management, which makes them slightly chaotic.

I appreciate that you're probably very attached to the campaign after all the hard work you've put into it. I'm sorry that I had a negative reaction to it.

I would like to emphasize one more time that I don't think it's particulary hard. I was actually kind of surprised by how easy it was to stay alive. I find myself consistently handicapped by silly things like the number of missiles my ship can carry and the number of wingmates I'm allowed to command, however.

Good luck with the final polish of the campaign.

[IPAndrews]

For reference Shaun I got as many complaints from people who didn't like Raider Wars as I did complements. As long as somebody likes it you've done a good job.

[madaboutgames]

Hi Fubar, I am aware of the problem with the retreat mission.  There are 2 other engine related problems I have come across if you could verify these. 

1. On mission 6a maybe others, if you die and restart mission, at any random time through that mission it will bug out leaving the player to load up TBP again and continue. 
2. On mission 16b there is a prolem where all textures on models go bright for for a second or two randomly through the mission.   This may be to a new ship or weapon that are not in the other missions.


As the campaign originally was that hard it was impossible to take out all the ships on some missions so i never put a mission end trigger for it.  After one of my friends came to play it yesterday (who never plays flight sims or pc games) and wizzed through it, There was also similar problems on other missions. 

As well as this, many other changes have been and are currently being made.  A 1mb update will shortly be ready for all testers.  I am also giving all EA ships names and making use of as many name plates as possible.  Another change which is almost done (as General Batuta mentioned its hard to distinguish between the advanced frigates and elite cruiers etc) I have chnaged the textures on specific ships like these so they are visually different from the standard ships.  I have already made support available for most missions helping in hull repair and re-arming missiles.  Many other changes will also be implimented.

I know Ian, everyones different and everyone will have a different opinion.  As with every game ever made you either like it or you dont.  A few of the voice actors who have played it told me in their e-mails that they liked it so when it gets released Im sure theres people out there who will like it and some that wont.

Especially on later missions General Battuta you should have control over many wings.  Originally the player was lucky to have control over more than one wing so thank your self lucky.  As the number of missiles your ship can carry is down to the defualt of the engine and more true to Babylon 5 I have not changed any missiles.  Although the amount may be small support is available on most missions.   As in the episodes of Babylon 5, it was a chore to take down a capital ship for a fighter.  Some races ships where even impossible.  I wanted to keep that feel as with the feel of the Earth Minbari War, At the end of the day if you are losing a war on this scale realistically it would be quite chaotic, a lot of your ships would be lost.  And the same applies to the Capships, this way they fire more and to me look more realistic to the B5 look battles.  The main problem with this which has been pointed out by some of the beta testers is the collision problem.  So work has started on various missions to change this slightly.   This is the way it was planned, you only have to survive the war, if you put effort in then the reward is a more organsied war that takes you on offensive missions which results in totally difeferent missions. 

Im sure you will notice the difference when its released.

[General Battuta]

All right. I have a better idea of your intent with the campaign now, and I appreciate your hard work. Consider my concerns somewhat assuaged.

Perhaps I was unfairly expecting EBW to be designed along the same lines as The Procyon Insurgency, Blue Planet, or other FS2 campaigns. It is clearly a different beast.

Good luck! And I'm glad we could come to a civil agreement.

[madaboutgames]

Well everyone, we are schedule for release on 28/07/08
Ive almost finished off the new bug free beta.  This one should be final. 

EBW-beta1b


Changes made :

Ive changed the second mission by making it more rewarding.  If you manage to save any of your cap ships from the first mission, they will be in the second mission and will make it a bit easier.  And what ever ships survive mission 2 will be there to help you at altair.  A few people have said about the difficulty of saving the station in mission 7, so this will make it a lot easier. 

Name plates :  All EA Omega class destroyers now have nameplates.  Took me a while to put them all on but they all have a different one now:)  Also all of the Midwinter Class ships have also been named. 

Brakiri Elite / Advanced cap ships : All the elite frigates, Advanced cruisers etc now share a reskined texture map to help tell them apart.

End of mission Problems : All missions now end properly and according to your actions.  This has been changed on numerous missions that where reported with this fault.

Sound effects : I have mixed some of samples to include background effects.  On some captains voices there now is an alarm which can be heard when they are at red alert status.

Additional ships : On a couple of missions I have included some extra ships.  These are Earth force ships.

Minor Changes : On some missions I have made minor changes moving starting places of ships and adding waypoints to certain ships etc.  I have also made some missions a little easier. 

Collision problem : I have done the best I can with this with a lot of tinkering.  Now you will rarely see a collision.

End of war summary stats screen :  Thanks to Ian and a little help from Vidmaster the end of war stats screen for the pilot will be the last peice to be changed.


The new beta will be available for beta testers as soon as the end of war summary stats are complete.



 

[General Battuta]

Hey, I'm impressed. Great work. I think I'll be giving this one another shot when it comes out!

[FUBAR-BDHR]

Are you still working on the voice files/text for them?  Almost none of the message in the first mission match the voice files. 

[madaboutgames]

Hi Fubar, got your mail, cheers.  Most bugs mentioned have been fixed including voice files/text

Ill be making up a patch today (unfortunatley the end of war stats summary mission is still incomplete.  Everything else sorted apart from this

[madaboutgames]

Well the beta testers should have recieved an e-mail with the patch.

This patch should fix all errors mentioned and a lot more, but im not going to go into all the updates at the mo as it gets released on monday    Ive spent 4 days solid just making changes and putting all the PVs in.  But finally the end of war stats screen should be fully functional, just needs a lot of testing

Should work a treat, oh and no body mentioned but cut scene 10b didnt play so ive re-encoded it and works fine now

Could do with 1 more beta tester who has time on there hands over the next 5 days.  Let me know if your interested.

[FUBAR-BDHR]

Got an hour or so to kill.  Let's see how bad I can break it.   

Unfortunately for you it's bar night for me so I won't get far today. 

[madaboutgames]

Your right, it is unfortunate for me, i like a good drink too,   Jopin you if I could

[FUBAR-BDHR]

Just crashed at the end of mission 1 again.  I believe it's a know bug that's already been fixed in FS2 3.6.10.  Doesn't do us much good but at least it's not the mission.  Oh and apparently I can't fly at all when sober died right off the bat. 

[Colonol Dekker]

Nearly there, can't wait to hear my voice squeee!

mag- you've a scifi-meshes account too right? I see you on there

[madaboutgames]

I rarely go on there mate to be honest, havnt had time and wont get time for a while.  All my artwork is now on my portfollio http://portfolio.shaunsgallery.co.uk   

[madaboutgames]

Just crashed at the end of mission 1 again.  I believe it's a know bug that's already been fixed in FS2 3.6.10.  Doesn't do us much good but at least it's not the mission.  Oh and apparently I can't fly at all when sober died right off the bat. 

Which bug is that mate? 

I have the same problem, i come to test the campaign through to the end to test the stats screen last night, it was 5 oclock this morning i finished.  Dies that many times I lost count, its a good job it added it up at the end