[Spoon]

Valathil recently upgraded the cutscenes code too

[karajorma]

He updated the actual code for playing cutscenes. I don't think that's what Tolwyn was on about. I suspect he's on about the code that allows you to choose a cutscene to play. I'm intrigued as to what would actually need to be updated there.

[Woolie Wool]

One thing that's apparent is the use of cutscenes for mission briefings. Some missions have a typical intermission cutscene before the mission like in a regular FS2 campaign, immediately followed by a second cutscene that serves as the briefing.

[karajorma]

Yeah, that's what I coded. That's why I'm wondering what they changed.

[Genoism]

how in gods name are u supposed to play this with a mouse? Its impossible to target anything since the movement only responds to the mouse if the mouse reticule is outside the large circle in the middle. Should have left the control scheme just like it is in freespace....trying to shoot a ship down like this is trying to shoot fish in a barrel with a slingshot.

[niffiwan]

Have you tried adjusting the joystick deadzone?  I think the mouse/joystick deadzones are linked somehow.

[Spoon]

I'm occasionally experiencing bad cases of getting INSTANT GIBBED.
First time was when I was gliding and came past an asteroid ship. Which chewed me up veeery rapidly. I figured that was just the heavy weapons on that thing and the light shielding and armor on the Arrow. But then just now I got pretty much instantly destroyed on a jousting run with a Darket! In a thunderbolt! What the heck?

[Dragon]

It might have punted you with a dumbfire, or an IR you didn't hear coming. Happened to me in WC3 too, jousting runs are a risky idea, because the enemy can and will try to shove a missile up your intakes.
And yes, the K'ha'haf is a though beast, not to mention really well armed. Those things have four reaper guns. In WC3, you faced them either in a Thnderbolt or an Excalibur (I don't really remember which one), and even then, they weren't easy pickings.

[headdie]

head to head when first closing in has rarely been a good idea in WC of any flavour, as approach fly out at an angle and about half way there charge at them, because you are at an angle to their flight path several things happen

1. they are not pointing at you so their guns arn't
2. they cant get a missile lock on you because you are out of the view cone
3. they seem to prefer to target your wingmen in that situation
4. it puts you in a good position to get up their tail pipes
edit
5. it gives you a better view of how the kat force is distributed

[Spoon]

That is all solid advice and all that, but I'm no rookie when it comes to WC&FS.
First off all, the Darket doesn't come with dumbfire missiles, only 'Stalker' heatseekers. There wasn't a missile explosion to begin with anyway.
Second, I went from full shields and hull to dead after like a mere 5-7 meson cannon shots. To score a kill on a thunderbolt in that fashion would require every shot to pass through the shields directly onto the hull. (14x35 damage = 490.  A thunderbolt has 440 armor) I'm going to assume its something along those lines that happened. Or something in any case, it happens so fast it doesn't give much time to respond.
What mostly pisses me off about this is that it happened right after a section that has you twiddling your thumbs while you listen to people talking for a full couple of minutes. With time compression disabled and no build in way to skip these sections if you already been through them once. (This certainly isnt the only mission that is quilty of this. Checkpoints would have been... nice to have) Ah well, guess I'll just edit the mission manually to reenable time compression so I can skip past it... Yeah, there done. ezey 'nuff

Also, you guys are *wrong*! head to head with a Thunderbolt against a Darket is the best way to score an easy kill. Its only a bad idea if you are the one flying the Darket 

[Tolwyn]

Also, you guys are *wrong*! head to head with a Thunderbolt against a Darket is the best way to score an easy kill. Its only a bad idea if you are the one flying the Darket 

A head on attack, even in a Thunderbolt, will get you killed faster than you can spell "Mama".

[Tolwyn]

Yeah, that's what I coded. That's why I'm wondering what they changed.

Aside from theora player optimization (a lot of them), we added special cutscene flags so that movies play only in campaign mode.

[karajorma]

Ahhh. That would explain it. I was quite happy with them playing in the techroom since they're basically supposed to replace briefings and debriefings but if you'd rather skip them that makes sense.

[Spoon]

Okay yeah, I'm pretty much convinced shots still pass through shields now. I frequently take damage with shields still up. (Especially frustrating when its that last 4% hull thats keeping you alive at the very end of a mission.
This is why I adviced you guys to use surface shield flags back in the day after prologue got released.

A head on attack, even in a Thunderbolt, will get you killed faster than you can spell "Mama".

Horse****. I took on two vaktoth's head on and killed them both while only taking minor hull damage. The thunderbolt has way too much firepower to not come out ahead in head to head situations.

[Tolwyn]

Ahhh. That would explain it. I was quite happy with them playing in the techroom since they're basically supposed to replace briefings and debriefings but if you'd rather skip them that makes sense.

We use it only for story cutscenes, since some are emedded as debriefing cutscenes (the events shown in the cutscene take place prior to the actual DB).

@Spoon: you might want to check your facts, Jack. And your choice of words.

[Spoon]

Check what facts exactly? I know for a fact that I have shots going through my shield. And I know for a fact that you people are wrong about jousting being a bad idea in a thunderbolt.
Choice of words? How's saying something is horse**** any worse than calling us ****birds? 

[Woolie Wool]

OK, I let one Paktahn through because I was too slow in one escort mission and it went after a transport and in seconds took it from 100 hull integrity to 1...with its GUNS.

I hope none of the Paktahn pilots get the idea of dogfighting me instead of continuing straight on their torpedo runs...

[Tolwyn]

It was probably a shuttle.

[Commander Zane]

OK, I let one Paktahn through because I was too slow in one escort mission and it went after a transport and in seconds took it from 100 hull integrity to 1...with its GUNS.

I hope none of the Paktahn pilots get the idea of dogfighting me instead of continuing straight on their torpedo runs...

I wouldn't worry, Paktahns are more of a threat from the aft against a fighter than they are from the fore.

[Mancubus]

Eat a full salvo of four plasmas and teo ions and will talk about it