[Dilmah G]

IMPORTANT: Everyone who downloaded version 1.12 from fsmods would not have been able to play the revised mission due to the fact I placed it in the data directory rather than the mission directory, apologies everyone. Fix is simple, move the mission from your data directory to data/missions of your High Noon folder, if the missions folder isn't there, you'll have to create it, I'm currently working on uploading a newer version with the mission in the right directory.


As you may have guessed by the title, I need testers for a mission I may release, which has been my 'Holiday Project' for nearly two weeks now (I think).

High Noon v 1.11 is basically my remake of the mission 'High Noon' from the retail campaign. The Sathanas now has an escort consisting of four ships, three cruisers and a Ravana (which poses a major threat to all GTVA ships in the mission including the Colly) if I remember correctly. The GTVA throws a helluva lot more at the Sathanas than Alpha Wing and the Colly this time. And I gave it an Electro-Rock soundtrack..... because I could. The player is still in the 203rd and flies as Beta 1, I decided I'd spice it up a bit by having Commander Habu as Alpha 1.

If you do want to give it a go

- Download version 1.12 (basically 1.11 but including everythign else): http://www.freespacemods.net/download.php?view.466

- Put it in it's own mod folder if it isn't already

- Make sure you're using 3.6.10 MVPs and the most recent nightly build for your OS and run the mod folder in the launcher

- Run High Noon- Final from the mission simulator

And follow the instructions in the descriptions if this wasn't comprehensive enough for you. I'm a stranger to releasing missions on here, so apologies for that.

and most importantly-

FEEDBACK FEEDBACK FEEDBACK

I can't change anything if no-one tells me what's wrong




Version 1.5 is now up for testing, 1.12 is required
Download from the attachment link on this post. Place in your mission folder of the High Noon/data/missions/ directory

Changes include:
- Slightly revised waypoint set for the Colly
- Arrival/damage/destruction messages for ships that hadn't previously been assigned them
- Fix for the briefing, in which it would say the Sath had ALL of its beams active (now THAT would've been a *****)
- More hitpoints for wings Alpha through to Delta (excluding the player), to increase their lifespan in the mission, which was reportedly painfully short
- Reinforcement Wings to compensate for the losses usually incurred by the Player's bomber wings.
- A Reinforcement wing to reinforce the player's fighter escort during the latter part of the mission.
 
I think that's it, and if all goes well I'll incorporate the last batch of changes and RELEASE!

[attachment deleted by admin]

[eliex]

Sounds good. 
Downloading now and I'll give you my feedback once I play-test it.

[Renegade Paladin]

Downloading now.  I always thought the original High Noon was a little... sparse. 

[Renegade Paladin]

Well, the beginning looks promising.  I'll figure out more as soon as I figure out why the game suddenly won't respond to my joystick; as you can probably imagine, not being able to control my fighter puts a crimp on testing.   

Edit:  Joystick issue resolved.

Overall, it was a very solid mission.  The Shamra, despite being the first destroyer on the scene, was not attacked throughout the whole thing; I don't know if that was intentional or not.  I don't know if there's anything I could have done to save the second one, since I was reloading when it went down.  I'll fly again later and find out. 

There's one thing that stuck out.  At the end, Command says that without the threat of the Colossus, the GTVA can retake the nebula.  I think you meant to say without the threat of the Sathanas. 

[Dilmah G]

Well, the beginning looks promising.  I'll figure out more as soon as I figure out why the game suddenly won't respond to my joystick; as you can probably imagine, not being able to control my fighter puts a crimp on testing.   

Edit:  Joystick issue resolved.

Overall, it was a very solid mission.  The Shamra, despite being the first destroyer on the scene, was not attacked throughout the whole thing; I don't know if that was intentional or not.  I don't know if there's anything I could have done to save the second one, since I was reloading when it went down.  I'll fly again later and find out. 

There's one thing that stuck out.  At the end, Command says that without the threat of the Colossus, the GTVA can retake the nebula.  I think you meant to say without the threat of the Sathanas. 

Ahh yes, well occasionally the Shamra goes down in the first 30 seconds, and that's what testing is for. I'll fix that now.

EDIT: Most of the destroyers can be saved by disarming the main beams of the cruisers in formation with the Juggernaught, I think I'll change the secondary from destroying it's escort to disarming it. Since the Colossus tends to take them out in quick succession towards the end of the mission.

[rbxplayer]

I get this error when trying to test your mission. This error only occurs on old missions. The campaigns that the FSCRP just upgraded or Silent Threat Reborn don't have such problems.

I tried by both including the latest MVPs and also removing them. The logs are what I got when removing the MVPs

1. I include High Moon as a folder in my Freespace folder
2. I opened the mod to remove the MediaVPs
3. I open the launcher and launch the game
4. I use my old pilot (used a new one, same problem)
5. Music on the main menu changes
6. I go to mission simulator
7. I load it but get an error that the game could not fetch 23classes because the current selected mod is 'High Moon' and the campaign is 'High Moon' are different (if I activate the MVPs, it tells me that the name of the mod is High Moon mediavps)
8. I select the option to load the game just the same
9. I get the following errors:

Error: Invalid subsystem name.

In sexpression: ( when
   ( is-subsystem-destroyed-delay
      "SJ Sathanas"
      "turret03"
      0
   )
   ( send-message
      "Alpha 1"
      "High"
      "Turret 3 Down"
   )
)
(Error appears to be: turret03)
File: missionparse.cpp
Line: 6082


Call stack:
------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------


Error: Verify failure: Vbuf1 != NULL

File: 3ddraw.cpp
Line: 452


Call stack:
------------------------------------------------------------------
    fs2_open_3_6_10r-20090125_r5053.exe 0069d534()
    fs2_open_3_6_10r-20090125_r5053.exe 0058da54()
------------------------------------------------------------------

[Dilmah G]

Hmmmmm, are you using a nightly build? If not, go download the most recent build for your OS and run that using the High Noon folder.

- Do you have all your mods in seperate folders? If not, one of them could be intefering with the mission.

- I don't understand your error with the campaign and selected mod issue

This isn't my area of expertise so it may do you better to PM someone more experienced in this issue or create a new topic in 'Technical Support'. What happens when you run the mission with mvps?

[rbxplayer]

I am running the latest build.

I have my mods all running in the different folders, plus this error only occurs in some non-new missions or mods. Eg. Everything works fine if I run the latest FSCRP campaign upgrades or Silent threat.

If I run the MVPs, same thing happens but it tells me that my mod is called High Noon MediaVP when the campaign is called High Noon.

I will open a post on the tech support then.

[Dilmah G]

I am running the latest build.

I have my mods all running in the different folders, plus this error only occurs in some non-new missions or mods. Eg. Everything works fine if I run the latest FSCRP campaign upgrades or Silent threat.

If I run the MVPs, same thing happens but it tells me that my mod is called High Noon MediaVP when the campaign is called High Noon.

I will open a post on the tech support then.

I see a new build's come out from the one I'm using, incompatibility perhaps? I'll run the mission through that and attach it

EDIT: Here we go, I've attached the mission I've run through the most recent .exe, may yield results. I'm really clueless to the error codes etc

[attachment deleted by admin]

[rbxplayer]

i liked it

[Dilmah G]

i liked it

Glad to hear you did. Anything in particular you liked? The dialogue, the whole mission itself?

and was there anything you didn't like? Was the difficulty too hard or too easy? Did the dialogue sound awkward etc etc you get the idea

[TacOne]

I was about to post a review, but then I noticed that I haven't been playing the final version. (I was wondering what escort ships you were talking about)
Seems the final version was in the data folder and not the missions folder...

I'll have a crack at it now and give a (slightly) more detailed review later.

[Dilmah G]

I was about to post a review, but then I noticed that I haven't been playing the final version. (I was wondering what escort ships you were talking about)
Seems the final version was in the data folder and not the missions folder...

I'll have a crack at it now and give a (slightly) more detailed review later.

Ahhh i see, thanks

Did you manually download the 'Final' version (I just called it final to differentiate, once I feel it's been tested enough I'll combine all the changes in 2.0), because if you downloaded the v 1.12 pack and the mission was in the data directory instead of the missions directory I'll have to re-upload and most people may have been playing the unchanged version.

EDIT: I just had a look at 1.12, my bad everyone. I'll post a comment on the file at fsmods telling people to move the mission from data to missions and I'll upload a revised version soon enough. Sorry for the inconvenience.

[TacOne]

Okay, I'm back from a playthrough of the proper version of the level. It was a lot better than the first one

Points:

• Music: Excellent. I don't know much about this, but it was good.
• Wingmates: I liked the feeling of not having to do everything myself, specifically taking out the second beam cannon. I forgot that I was beta 1 and not alpha 1 a couple of times when giving orders, though
  The only thing I would suggest is giving alpha through delta wing more hitpoints, except the player. With all the enemies in the level they were all dead before the sath had 50% hull left. (This was on medium difficulty)
• Enemies: As I said all my wingmates were all killed in short order, so a lot of the enemy fighters ganged up on me almost leading to my demise. Having more durable friends would help alliviate this. That said, being ganged up on is nothing unusual in this game, so it was more an annoyance that I shouldn't really have bothered to mention.
• Endor syndrome: It was there, but I really really liked the feeling that this was a major engagement that the GTVA was desperatly trying to win; throwing in everything they had.
• Waypoints: It was nice to see the friendly capships fall in behind the sath, nipping at its heels as it were.
  In the single playthrough I've done yet, the Colossus didn't turn around, though, moving past the sath and masking all its guns making the end a bit dragged out.
• Cutscene: A surprise, and a good one at that. It got a little broken with the colossus being massively out of position. The camera didn't pan back to the sath as it exploded, though. (I assume it's supposed to be on the screen if the colossus is in the right place)

Okay, I don't think I can think of anything else right now. If you manage to read through the above without hurting your brain, all the better.
I'll try playing it again later and see if things turn out different.

[Commander Zane]

This mission is supposed to be a massive Battle of Endor style showdown to begin with, Volition had no excuse to make the most important event of the entire game a battle consisting of one allied ship and a bomber wing (Or two)...

That alone just makes the Shivans look weak and incompetient for going down against so little opposition.

[TacOne]

This mission is supposed to be a massive Battle of Endor style showdown to begin with, Volition had no excuse to make the most important event of the entire game a battle consisting of one allied ship and a bomber wing (Or two)...

That alone just makes the Shivans look weak and incompetient for going down against so little opposition.

I totally agree. When I said that BoES was there I meant that there was so much going on that I couldn't keep track of all the explosions, not that I got overwhelmed with way too much to do. Again, the feeling that this was a significant battle way overrides the feeling of BoES.
(Note that I don't impy that you are critisizing my review, even if you were)

[Dilmah G]

Okay, I'm back from a playthrough of the proper version of the level. It was a lot better than the first one

Points:

• Music: Excellent. I don't know much about this, but it was good.
• Wingmates: I liked the feeling of not having to do everything myself, specifically taking out the second beam cannon. I forgot that I was beta 1 and not alpha 1 a couple of times when giving orders, though
  The only thing I would suggest is giving alpha through delta wing more hitpoints, except the player. With all the enemies in the level they were all dead before the sath had 50% hull left. (This was on medium difficulty)
• Enemies: As I said all my wingmates were all killed in short order, so a lot of the enemy fighters ganged up on me almost leading to my demise. Having more durable friends would help alliviate this. That said, being ganged up on is nothing unusual in this game, so it was more an annoyance that I shouldn't really have bothered to mention.
• Endor syndrome: It was there, but I really really liked the feeling that this was a major engagement that the GTVA was desperatly trying to win; throwing in everything they had.
• Waypoints: It was nice to see the friendly capships fall in behind the sath, nipping at its heels as it were.
  In the single playthrough I've done yet, the Colossus didn't turn around, though, moving past the sath and masking all its guns making the end a bit dragged out.
• Cutscene: A surprise, and a good one at that. It got a little broken with the colossus being massively out of position. The camera didn't pan back to the sath as it exploded, though. (I assume it's supposed to be on the screen if the colossus is in the right place)

Okay, I don't think I can think of anything else right now. If you manage to read through the above without hurting your brain, all the better.
I'll try playing it again later and see if things turn out different.

Thanks, the feedback was good and I'll implement it now. I'd originally planned for the Colossus to move in front of the Sathanas and bring it's broadside cannons to bear and then move into position next to the Sathanas and exchange beam fire. I'm looking at the mission now and it appears the Colossus waypoint was a bit too far forward, I'll fix that now, and yes the Sath is supposed to be onscreen if the Colly is where it's meant to be.

The wingmen issue is a prevelant one, and I hadn't thought of adding more hitpoints, thanks for that.

I'll get to it 

This mission is supposed to be a massive Battle of Endor style showdown to begin with, Volition had no excuse to make the most important event of the entire game a battle consisting of one allied ship and a bomber wing (Or two)...

That alone just makes the Shivans look weak and incompetient for going down against so little opposition.

Too true, those 2 missions about engaging the Sathanas was a bit of a letdown, surely something with a PII processor could've handled at least a few more ships.

[TacOne]

Glad to help

[rbxplayer]

I will play v 1.12 and get back to you...

Didn't bother at all about the blatter that was going on. Was too concentrated on killing the jugg.

That's the problem with these non voice acted missions... with all the action that's going on, the last thing you wanna do is look at the top of your screen and read the text...

actually, the fact that I could not read the text was a sort of good thing... if it is a such important mission, you have to keep the player on the alert all the time.

I don't agree that there needs to be more wingmen. The mission was well balanced when I played it. Might have been a matter of luck though 

[Dilmah G]

I will play v 1.12 and get back to you...

Didn't bother at all about the blatter that was going on. Was too concentrated on killing the jugg.

That's the problem with these non voice acted missions... with all the action that's going on, the last thing you wanna do is look at the top of your screen and read the text...

actually, the fact that I could not read the text was a sort of good thing... if it is a such important mission, you have to keep the player on the alert all the time.

I don't agree that there needs to be more wingmen. The mission was well balanced when I played it. Might have been a matter of luck though 

Ahh I see, I might even consider posting on the VA Guild and getting Voice Actors together for this if enough people play and post feedback for version 2.0. School starts for me in 2 days so once that gets underway I won't have as much time devoted to FRED-ing. However I have come across a phenomenon, where brilliant ideas seem to 'pop' into my head in the middle of class, so that should yield some interesting results.

The version you were playing notably lacks an escort for the juggernaught, so you'll find stuff lives for a bit longer, most notably the Shamra.