[General Battuta]

I suspect I may be asking a question that's already been answered, but as it's been almost two and a half years since I've gotten FSO and played Blue Planet, I'd like to know if WiH II has had any work for possible voice acting?  I feel like it'd add to the story's quality a fair bit more.  Likewise...Well, I have recently started up doing video game commentary, so I'd like to possibly do a Let's Play of WiH II myself (the first two acts I kind played to death, so I don't feel like it'd be genuine enough to really allow viewers to enjoy).  As it stands, WiH II I don't think I've ever completed, let alone even fully understood that story at all due to the lack of voice acting.  The combat makes all the discussions get drowned away.

Even if we had the bandwidth to pursue this instead of finishing act 4+5 (definitely the priority!), I couldn't afford to pay actors any more.

[Neptune]

Even if we had the bandwidth to pursue this instead of finishing act 4+5 (definitely the priority!), I couldn't afford to pay actors any more.

I think this is an important point to note. While scripting, managing people, doing auditions and things is a huge task, it's not the only limitation in place. I haven't been around that long but I remember seeing some discussion about hiring professional actors for some roles to get the desired quality. As far as i'm aware everything was funded out of the team members own pockets. I'd love to see the rest of the campaign VA'd, but i'd rather the team hang onto their hard earned money - they've more then shown their love for the project and their dedication to the cause.

On the note of Voice Acting, can I just give a (long overdue, i've been meaning to do this for some time) huge shout-out to Caiaphas for the magnificent job he's done voicing Steele? Amongst an already outstanding cast he takes the cake, perfectly capturing Steele as the gentleman psychopath he is. I end up sporting the stupidest grin every time I listen to him showing Lopez who is the boss.

[FrikgFeek]

Act 4 has been "close to done" for quite a few years now AFAIK. Even when all the missions are complete I'm guessing there'll still be a while before the thing's released because it has to go through a lot of iteration and testing. From what I've heard act 4 will also be a decent stop point because it wraps up the UEF-GTVA war.

[Mito [PL]]

Well, I have recently started up doing video game commentary, so I'd like to possibly do a Let's Play of WiH II myself (the first two acts I kind played to death, so I don't feel like it'd be genuine enough to really allow viewers to enjoy).

My suggestion, if you want to make a gameplay out of Blue Planet, do it on a FSO build that uses PBR. It looks just so much better!

[Caiaphas]

On the note of Voice Acting, can I just give a (long overdue, i've been meaning to do this for some time) huge shout-out to Caiaphas for the magnificent job he's done voicing Steele? Amongst an already outstanding cast he takes the cake, perfectly capturing Steele as the gentleman psychopath he is. I end up sporting the stupidest grin every time I listen to him showing Lopez who is the boss.

Message received, and thank you for the accolades.  I do hope I'll have the chance to reprise Steele at some point in the future of BP, whatever form BP's future takes.

[Bryan See]

As if Darius and his team decides.

[SF-Junky]

Pardon me, but when has Post Meridian become such an absurdity of a mission? I remember it being a self-playing mission at the initial release, so there was some need to do something with it from a gameplay pov - though I personally think that some self-playing pieces here and there are quite okay. But the outcome surely overshot in my opinion. I think the Maxim strike should be weakened drastically, reduce it to one wave + possibly remove the fighter escort (or both).

Any other opinions on that?

[xenocartographer]

Are you exploiting (and covering) Epsilon wing?

[Mito [PL]]

The main difficulty difference in the latest release is that Epsilon is going to get destroyed before they even launch their first missiles if you don't help them. And if they don't kill the main guns of Meridian or if you don't finish their job then it's basically game over for the frigates. Actually, killing the Ares wing designated by Epsilon when the mission starts seems to be just enough.

E: Hold on a sec, by 'Epsilon' I meant that gunship wing that's supposed to defang the Meridian. Just for the clarity's sake, I can't remember their proper designation.

[xenocartographer]

Delta!

[General Battuta]

Protect Delta, then use the missile spotting to kill the Maxim strike.

[Homura]

Pardon me, but when has Post Meridian become such an absurdity of a mission? I remember it being a self-playing mission at the initial release, so there was some need to do something with it from a gameplay pov - though I personally think that some self-playing pieces here and there are quite okay.

Was there an update release this year or something? I do remember that frustating Maxim strike. Did they changed something recently?

[manwiththemachinegun]

If you guys ever do reach a point of, "f- this noise," codex lore, a short story, or an ingame cutscene would be fine too. I just hate to see orphaned stories with so much promise.

[SF-Junky]

Well, guys. I did figure out that the trick is to kill Aquarius and use Epsilon. Thanks for that.  The point is that both is a lot easier said than done. I don't know when this recent update was released, I just recently updated my BP files. Until a few weeks ago I had the files from the director's cut release.

Killing Aquarius has definitely become more difficult, but this part is not the core problem. I really believe that the Maxim strike is too powerful and should be weakened. But okay, I'm sure I'll give this further attempts in the future and improve my handling of this mission. Still, I was really frustrated yesterday. Again, pardon the harsh language. Don't consider it personal offence, please. I mean it strictly professional.

[General Battuta]

It's probably a little much (I am super tempted to give all warships mild Maxim resistance) but just spam those missile calls and use the targeting hotkeys.

[Neptune]

(I am super tempted to give all warships mild Maxim resistance)

I always thought that UEF warships were just really weak to maxims from a story perspective (Stuff like "Maxim penetration really tore up Engineering" and so on).

[FrikgFeek]

Maxim DPS has been absolutely ridiculous since retail and I think giving all warships some resistance to it might be a more elegant solution than straight-up nerfing the damage. That way maxims will still do full damage to light targets like transports(which is what they're really built for) while not being as dumb against warships.

[General Battuta]

Yes. A slight subtractive threshold could sharply cut Maxim DPS without changing much else.

[FrikgFeek]

Also, there are other explanations for why the Yangtze took so much internal damage from maxim penetration aside from just saying that all UEF ships are really weak to the maxim cannon.
The wargods were engaged in a huge engagement and took quite a lot of beam and torpedo damage by that point, their active armour must have already been at the limit and the actual plating was very likely to have been quite badly damaged. By the time of the later maxim strikes both the Indus and the Yangtze must've been at their limit, the Indus was just luckier.

[Soulrheever]

Ok, I give up...
Aristea. Torpedo Two.
I can't save them anymore. In fact, I can't even get the Medea's beams down. They've been significantly up-armored since my last play through (takes 4 Paveways now instead of the 2 I remember), and Paveways are now apparently much easier to intercept, as I can barely ever get them to go through at all. Is it even still doable?

Playing on Medium, I've tried:
- Every possible angle of attack
- Ordering friendlies to destroy beams (they just get murdered as soon as they get close)
- Dive-bombing the beams (even at point blank range, the Paveways get intercepted more often than not)
- Firing on the Medea as fast as possible (being within range, in position, and delaying only as long as it takes to obtain lock)
- Cheating myself infinite ammo and just chucking swarms of Paveways at it (and that STILL isn't enough to bring the beams down)

Any hints would be greatly appreciated, because I really cannot think of anything else to try.