[perihelion]

So... anyone going to highlight this?  Because that was truly well done.  The abrupt shifts in point of view at the end were rather chilling.

[Mongoose]

I'd love to...but I'm not entirely sure how to enter in a new highlight, and I'd rather not foul up the front page if I can help it.

[chief1983]

All you need is an image hosted somewhere for the highlight, and then it's just (url=blah)(img)imgpath(/img)text(/url)

Edit: Ok it's all highlightified now.

Also, I get a failed assert when I try to run this with a debug build, but no one else seems to be reporting any issues.  This is with Wanderer branch r5146 or the new RC2.  Am I the first one to try in debug or is something messed up on my end?

[Rhymes]

Uh, chief?  You might wanna take a closer look at the highlight

"Ransom Arceihn has released an experimental campaign that will could very well blow your mind!"

Just FYI

EDIT:  Having finished downloading it, I played it, and in true Ransom tradition, I had to turn the game off about halfway through. The switch in mission two pulled a Transcend: IT SCARED THE **** OUT OF ME!!! 

Ransom, you have yet again proven your awesomeness.  You, sir, are amazing, and I bow to your superiority.

[chief1983]

Fixed the highlight.  And yeah, it's pretty damn crazy.

[Ransom]

Thanks to everyone who's played it. I'm glad this is going down well.

Ehh... count me among those who didn't find it much fun.

That's a shame, but I fully understand.

Spoiler:

The preachiness of SIMULATION was definitely something I was concerned about. I'd intended for the dialogue to be matter-of-fact enough that it wouldn't grate - that all moral judgements would be inferences on the part of the player rather than explicitly handed down by SIM. It's humbling to know that I could have done better.

The difficulty was a problem, because of course you're at the mercy of the engine's AI most of the time. I allowed the player to progress regardless of the scenario's outcome (which combined with the luck aspect feeds into the campaign's themes), because it's meant to be introspective. In the situation you describe, I felt that the possibility of the player being made to suffer the loss they were about to inflict on their enemy was a potent thematic device. But I was certainly aware that for some failures would be frustrating regardless of the lack of punishment.

Ah, well. That's the nature of experiments, I suppose. Fun wasn't a primary objective of the project, I'll admit, so to be honest I'm (very pleasantly) surprised there haven't been more responses like yours.

I'm dismayed you hit a bug at that part of the last mission, though. It's really the crux of the campaign. Could you send me a PM detailing the exact situation?

(Also - the techroom was a deliberate omission. I felt it cluttered the menu too much to be worth inclusion for a campaign 30-60 minutes long, and if you really wanted to get to it you could just press T.)

also, what's with the name?

The title has a bit of a double-meaning - several people have caught one or the other already. It refers to the idiom from Don Quixote, as well as the music used in the finale. Both relate to different aspects of the campaign.

[Commander Zane]

The title has a bit of a double-meaning - several people have caught one or the other already. It refers to the idiom from Don Quixote, as well as the music used in the finale. Both relate to different aspects of the campaign.

Okay I *think* I understand the first part, but the music I still don't have as much as a clue.

[feltoar]

The readme implies there is voice acting, but I completed the first mission and didnt hear a word. With all the positive feedback I decided rather than complete it with no voice Id ask if this is how its supposed to be?

[Ransom]

That's how it's supposed to be, yes. The voice acting is limited.

[feltoar]

Cheers, Ill get back to playing

[chief1983]

Actually I kind of wish that Simulation was voiced by the speech synth, but it doesn't seem to want to do that, even if I've enabled it in the launcher.  Would be kind of creepy still I think, and I wouldn't have to be speed reading so hardcore.

[Snail]

I had to keep referring to the F4 Mission Log.

[Rhymes]

The readme implies there is voice acting, but I completed the first mission and didnt hear a word. With all the positive feedback I decided rather than complete it with no voice Id ask if this is how its supposed to be?

Play mission 2.  There's only one voice acted line, but you're not going to forget it. 

[General Battuta]

The readme implies there is voice acting, but I completed the first mission and didnt hear a word. With all the positive feedback I decided rather than complete it with no voice Id ask if this is how its supposed to be?

Play mission 2.  There's only one voice acted line, but you're not going to forget it. 

That really, really, really unnerved me.

Something about the pathos of it.

[c914]

Great job at this mod It relay gives second thoughts about war and what we have saw in other games.

[Flaming_Sword]

* Flaming_Sword gets ideas

[Unknown Target]

Definitely interesting. I like it. The sim itself preached a bit too much at times and felt overly melodramatic, but generally it was a very good exercise, top notch work. That one point with the voice acting is stellar.

[NGTM-1R]

I'm going to say I didn't enjoy it all.

This was probably inevitable. Harpoon Classic IN SPACE it was not. But what really, really sunk it was something Mongoose tried to explain earlier, making some wrong assumptions.

It preached the wrong things. This is not how you train an officer.

This is a simulation of an insane, dysfunctional GTVA military created as a proganda tool by the NTF. If this is how Command was trained, or operates, I have every right as a pilot to complain about him.

[Ransom]

This is not how you train an officer.

You are quite right.

This is pretty much exactly the kind of reaction I was terrified of while I was working on this. It's a misinterpretation of the project's intent, but the fact it's happened demonstrates my failure here. I apologise for that.

[Dilmah G]

This is not how you train an officer.

You are quite right.

This is pretty much exactly the kind of reaction I was terrified of while I was working on this. It's a misinterpretation of the project's intent, but the fact it's happened demonstrates my failure here. I apologise for that.

Well it did a good job of getting to you. But in my own military experience I'd have to concur that's not how you'd train officers. Maybe some kind of psychological assessment? But in those terms they look for "Motivated, Aggressive, Team Players". It could be an uber-advanced way of putting candidates under stress however, which is what many officer programs do to my knowledge at least to some extent.

Usually this kind of thing involves very straight forward instruction and commands, but this is like Officer Training: Transcend-ified

I enjoyed it x10 regardless