[Kolgena]

Reminds me:

Big thanks for redoing the missions that involved 10 minutes of dialogue followed by hard fights. I appreciate having missions split up where applicable, or with skippable cut-scene sections. Yes, I die a lot.

[Spoon]

Just out of interest, how did you think the in-game communications voice filtering worked out? 'Cause I want to hear what people think of it, in case someone comes up with suggestions that can be implemented in the future.

It was done really well. It all sounded really natural to me, at no point did I feel any of the filtering was over or poorly done. The static when Alpha wing gets separate after chasing the Duke for example was an other nice touch 
And the Vishnans just sound mighty cool.

You're just a better pilot now.

Well that's also a possibility 

However, I would like to ask if you are using regular or advanced starfields. In my experience, the advanced starfield is a bit more "star-like" than the lower resolution one.

I was using the advanced ones.

I'm glad you liked the rest though. Oh by the way, what did you think of the Vishnan Nebula skybox? It was actually the one I thought would be the most controversial of the backgrounds in the campaign. But the one that took the most effort was the destroyed Earth...

I'm split on that one actually. On one hand I dislike the 'real nebula' look but on the other I think it is really well made. I think it also fits the mysterious Vishnan atmosphere. It gives a feeling of "Oh, so This is what is beyond that portal. That's different." But it didn't made me feel like I was 'inside' a nebula, just that it was all around me.

[Herra Tohtori]

Just out of interest, how did you think the in-game communications voice filtering worked out? 'Cause I want to hear what people think of it, in case someone comes up with suggestions that can be implemented in the future.

It was done really well. It all sounded really natural to me, at no point did I feel any of the filtering was over or poorly done. The static when Alpha wing gets separate after chasing the Duke for example was an other nice touch  
And the Vishnans just sound mighty cool.

Well for the additional effects on Alpha wing I can't take credit, they were like that when I got my grubby paws on the process. I also had nothing to do with Vishnan sound, though I agree that it's fairly awesome.

You're just a better pilot now.

Well that's also a possibility  

Oh trust me it is much more of a factor than you would think. No names mentioned or harm intended, but we had a beta tester who had no real flight hours in FS2, and he got stuck in Forced Entry. I still don't know what went wrong there...

However, I would like to ask if you are using regular or advanced starfields. In my experience, the advanced starfield is a bit more "star-like" than the lower resolution one.

I was using the advanced ones.

Oh. Well, I guess it can't be helped then.

I'm glad you liked the rest though. Oh by the way, what did you think of the Vishnan Nebula skybox? It was actually the one I thought would be the most controversial of the backgrounds in the campaign. But the one that took the most effort was the destroyed Earth...

I'm split on that one actually. On one hand I dislike the 'real nebula' look but on the other I think it is really well made. I think it also fits the mysterious Vishnan atmosphere. It gives a feeling of "Oh, so This is what is beyond that portal. That's different." But it didn't made me feel like I was 'inside' a nebula, just that it was all around me.

Marvellous, that was pretty much the effect I was aiming for (the feeling of being inside a shell of emissive nebula, rather than flying in a fog effect used by FS2). Also the alien feeling of the environment was something that I tried to accomplish.

Just for some insight, the source material used for the nebula can be found here and the image material was, of course, the Carina Nebula surrounding Eta Carinae.

Whether you want to draw any conclusions as to location of that system is up to you. I don't think there's any canon location for that system, so it might as well be Eta Carinae or it's outskirts... although that nebula wouldn't be quite so intense in reality. Fact of the matter is though that in this case I simply used source material that was available in very high quality and was suited for conversion into spherical texture, and this one met the requirements best of all source material I could find on relatively short notice.

[General Battuta]

Thanks for all the praise, guys. It really means a lot, and believe it or not, it probably helps speed War in Heaven along a bit.

I am particularly fond of this in-depth discussion and critique. Yay. What did you guys think of the wingmen personas - Corey, Taylor, and the 'secret' one?

HerraTohtori's 'beyond the Knossos' nebula skybox had quite the tumultuous development. The texture contained a number of really big stars which clearly deserved (and needed to be) suns, but we didn't want to create horrible sunglare issues in the mission. Working around it took a bit of creativity and the use of some oft-ignored SCP features.

Goober5000 was pretty instrumental in getting many of our voice actors in place, simply because he helped point us towards the right places to look. I think he deserves special thanks.

[Klaustrophobia]

i've reached the vishnans blowing the almighty **** out of the 3 shivan destroyers (which would make a kickass cutscene i think), and so far 

the voice acting is the best i've heard in any campaign save retail, though i haven't actually played very many with voice acting.  agree with all who already stated the females are outstanding.  taylor sounds sexy  (sorry if that comes out creepy  ).  the radio filtering you asked about, i'd call perfect.  the vishnans sound awsome, though i would have had trouble understanding them without the text. (only heard them once so far).  visuals are nothing short of awe inspiring.  did the pulse cannon effect change, or am i just not remembering the original very well?

but now let me nitpick.  as with someone else who already posted (i forget who), there were one or two weak points with taylor i noticed in the early missions.  i'm not really sure how to describe it... overacted maybe?  and on that note, i found MUCH of samuel overly dramatic, particularly in the briefs/debriefs.  this is space combat with aliens intent on wiping out the human race, not shakespearan theater.
the nebula beyond the portal is well done, but way too bright in my opinion.  it seems like half the possible orientations have you blinded by sun glare, and when you're not, it is still rather harshly bright.  i found it difficult to use the hud in these missions. 

the cutscenes are even better than before, but i have one bug to report and one suggestion.  tagged on the off chance someone reading this hasn't ever played BP.

Spoiler:

the lucifer's model was messed up in the escape pod's cutscene.  i have a screenshot, if someone can remind me where they save    also for that cutscene, i was under the impression we were watching the battle from the fleeing pod's perspective.  this being the case, there are 2 problems with this cutscene - 1) (minor) it passes RIGHT next to the lucifer.  i would imagine an escape pod wouldn't want to pass that close.  2) the camera pans to the other side of the battle.  this couldn't have been recorded from the escape pod, unless it somehow got to traveling many hundred m/s.  i really liked the panning effect, but it doesn't fit in with the EP aspect.

[The E]

Spoiler:

the lucifer's model was messed up in the escape pod's cutscene.  i have a screenshot, if someone can remind me where they save    also for that cutscene, i was under the impression we were watching the battle from the fleeing pod's perspective.  this being the case, there are 2 problems with this cutscene - 1) (minor) it passes RIGHT next to the lucifer.  i would imagine an escape pod wouldn't want to pass that close.  2) the camera pans to the other side of the battle.  this couldn't have been recorded from the escape pod, unless it somehow got to traveling many hundred m/s.  i really liked the panning effect, but it doesn't fit in with the EP aspect.

Spoiler:

About 1 and 2: We don't care. We think it looks cool.

About the screenshots: They are saved in <FS2 directory>\screenshots.

[Scotty]

i've reached the vishnans blowing the almighty **** out of the 3 shivan destroyers (which would make a kickass cutscene i think), and so far 

I always thought it funny that wasn't a cutscene.  I actually managed to score the kills for two of them by Harpooning a turret to death before the Vishnans blew the 'almighty ****' out of them.

[Herra Tohtori]

The cutscene was obviously a reconstruction of the battle based on the data found in the log computer of the escape pod.

The ships are networked to each save the status and positional data of all ships registered at the engagement zone. That way, redundant recordings are assured and even if one ship's recorders survive the engagement, it will deliver all relevant information for those who discover it.


So yeah I totally pulled that out from my ass but it would work as an explanation...  


 

[General Battuta]

The thought while constructing the camera pan was that this data had been reconstructed from the escape pod's flight data recorders, including transmitted information from nearby warships.

Or so I recall.

i've reached the vishnans blowing the almighty **** out of the 3 shivan destroyers (which would make a kickass cutscene i think), and so far 

I always thought it funny that wasn't a cutscene.  I actually managed to score the kills for two of them by Harpooning a turret to death before the Vishnans blew the 'almighty ****' out of them.

That won't work any more, since beam damage now counts towards kills in Blue Planet.

If I'd had a few more weeks to work I think I would've tweaked that scene just a little further, but it's pretty good as is.

[Goober5000]

This is pretty awesome.  I look forward to getting home and playing this with fresh voice acting and all the other goodies.   Congratulations to the BP team.

[General Battuta]

Goober5000 was pretty instrumental in getting many of our voice actors in place, simply because he helped point us towards the right places to look. I think he deserves special thanks.

Don't miss your special thanks!

[SpardaSon21]

I like what you did with "Universal Truth" regarding the Shivan response to the Vishnans.

[General Battuta]

We have a plan.

[blowfish]

We have a plan.

Oh noes!!! Blue Planet has been taken over by cylons!!!

[The E]

Yes. But unlike other Cylons, we really do have a plan. We haven't let those blasted human-form Cylons take over to screw with all those plans.

[General Battuta]

We have a plan.

Oh noes!!! Blue Planet has been taken over by cylons!!!

Darius has a plan for you. He has a plan for everything and everyone.

We love you, Blowfish. And we always will.

[Herra Tohtori]

the nebula beyond the portal is well done, but way too bright in my opinion.  it seems like half the possible orientations have you blinded by sun glare, and when you're not, it is still rather harshly bright.  i found it difficult to use the hud in these missions. 

Noted. There were some concerns about that in the team as well, but it's more related on the fact that even at full brightness, the HUD isn't still quite as bright as I would want it to be.

Assuming you know to use the L key to set your HUD to brighter and still have issues, creating a fully white HUD profile might help this issue.

[Klaustrophobia]

i agree about the hud not being bright enough.  i do use L, but some elements are unaffected.  messages and the target box/triangles in particular I had a hard time seeing.

anywho, screwed up lucy attached.

[attachment deleted by admin]

[blowfish]

Check your mediavps.  BluePlanet doesn't modify the Lucifer model at all.

[General Battuta]

Yep, whatever's wrong is wrong with your MVPs.