Author Topic: RELEASE: Legacy of Shiva Part 1 DEMO (UPDATED)  (Read 21586 times)

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Offline Crybertrance

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Re: RELEASE: Legacy of Shiva Part 1 DEMO
Had a playthrough, good work there for a first mission. I agree with Felix on all issues, particularly the one about new FREDers. However, cant wait to see what you come up with Legate.
<21:08:30>   Hartzaden fires a slammer at Cybertrance
<21:09:13>   Crybertrance pops flares, but wonders how Hartzaden acquired aspect lock on a stealth fighter... :\
<21:11:58>   *** The_E joined #bp [email protected]
21:11:58   +++ ChanServ has given op to The_E
<21:12:58>   Hartzaden continues to paint crybertrance and feeding the info to a wing of gunships
<21:14:07>   Crybertrance sends emergency "IM GETING MY ASS KICKED HERE!!!!eleventy NEED HELPZZZZ" to 3rd fleet command
<21:14:50>   Hartzaden jamms the transmission.
<21:14:51>   The_E explodes the sun

 

Offline Legate Damar

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Re: RELEASE: Legacy of Shiva Part 1 DEMO
Thank you for the comments and suggestions. The thing is, like I said I am not a very experienced modder, so if someone tells me something like "this directive isn't working" but when I try it it works fine, then I really don't know how to fix it.

Yes, this is intended to be the first mission of the campaign (although the final version might change a bit). Destroying that ship before it escapes isn't necessary, just a bit of an extra challenge (although it's easy if you know about it in advance).

If you are finding the enemies too easy perhaps try a higher difficulty level.

This campaign is intended to be serious overall, but with a good amount of humor too.

Some explanation for the Shivans' nonchalance will be in the full campaign.

Also regarding the background, I did suspect it was a little sparce. I will spruce it up more for the full version .
« Last Edit: June 05, 2012, 08:14:45 am by Legate Damar »

 

Offline mjn.mixael

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Re: RELEASE: Legacy of Shiva Part 1 DEMO
Alright here's my feedback.

First up, good job. There are some things in here that I haven't even tried yet. The menu music was cool. Had a retro feel that I was really digging. The weapon effects were  also pretty neat. Also, the little tidbit in the debrief peaked my interest into the story a bit. Nice job.

Here's some specific issues I noticed with the modpack.

You've got several files in two different VPs (intro.ogg is one, and a lot of audio). You've also got some MVPs models and maps in your modpack. Given that your mod requires MVPs 3.6.12, this isn't necessary unless you actually changed the POFs or textures. If you are including model files, also include the cache files (data/cache/XXXX.bx). Also, your audio files. Some are in WAV and some in OGG. Some of them are also retail audio, which you don't need to carry in your mod. You should, however, convert all your audio to OGG.

Your mod download includes an empty data folder, that's unnecessary. You can also make use of the credits.tbl instead of a separate credits readme. In that same vein, use game_settings.tbl to set your default campaign.

I was somewhat disappointed to see that you basically used the exact buttons from my mainhall tutorial. I recommend you try to create something new and different. Perhaps a button style that matches your mod's Shivan tones and styles?

In your mod.ini, include a description and forum link to this thread. And finally, your cb anims should probably be the same aspect ration across all of them. I recommend 660x300 (the sorta hi-res standard).

For the missions...

Much of your briefing and message wording left a little to be desired. Are you a native english speaker? If not, it might be worth to have someone who is go over your text. Also, be sure to use something like emptymsg.wav for message sounds. It's just a beep so that players focused on action will be reminded to read the new message.

The Destroy Bombers directive never marked true. I couldn't ever get it to mark true.

Your mission music was all over the place. Between the menu music, action music, and victory music there were multiple musical styles ranging from heavy metal to royal fanfare. My personal preference and recommendation is to make sure all your music fits within a very similar style. I've used this site to find almost all of the music for BtA. It's free, and legal as long as you credit the music authors in your credits file.

I hope that wasn't too critical. I wrote it so as to help you learn more and not to discourage your from creating your campaign.
Cutscene Upgrade Project - Mainhall Remakes - Between the Ashes
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Between the Ashes is looking for committed testers, PM me for details.
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Offline Legate Damar

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Re: RELEASE: Legacy of Shiva Part 1 DEMO
Alright here's my feedback.

First up, good job. There are some things in here that I haven't even tried yet. The menu music was cool. Had a retro feel that I was really digging. The weapon effects were  also pretty neat. Also, the little tidbit in the debrief peaked my interest into the story a bit. Nice job.

Thank you

Quote
Here's some specific issues I noticed with the modpack.

You've got several files in two different VPs (intro.ogg is one, and a lot of audio).

I think those were all in sound.vp

Quote
You've also got some MVPs models and maps in your modpack. Given that your mod requires MVPs 3.6.12, this isn't necessary unless you actually changed the POFs or textures.

Which ones are these?

Quote
If you are including model files, also include the cache files (data/cache/XXXX.bx).

Are these files generated automatically?

Quote
Also, your audio files. Some are in WAV and some in OGG. Some of them are also retail audio, which you don't need to carry in your mod. You should, however, convert all your audio to OGG.

Well I used music in ogg and sound effects in wav. Which ones were retail?

Quote
Your mod download includes an empty data folder, that's unnecessary.

So I can just leave the data folder out and it will still work?

Quote
You can also make use of the credits.tbl instead of a separate credits readme. In that same vein, use game_settings.tbl to set your default campaign.

Okay, I can do that

Quote
I was somewhat disappointed to see that you basically used the exact buttons from my mainhall tutorial. I recommend you try to create something new and different. Perhaps a button style that matches your mod's Shivan tones and styles?

I am not much of an artist and I was worried that if I tried to make buttons they would end up looking like something a 10 year old drew in MSPaint.

Quote
In your mod.ini, include a description and forum link to this thread.

Got it

Quote
And finally, your cb anims should probably be the same aspect ration across all of them. I recommend 660x300 (the sorta hi-res standard).

I used that for the two I made but the other one was taken from another mod.

Quote
For the missions...

Much of your briefing and message wording left a little to be desired. Are you a native english speaker? If not, it might be worth to have someone who is go over your text.

Examples of what was wrong?

Quote
Also, be sure to use something like emptymsg.wav for message sounds. It's just a beep so that players focused on action will be reminded to read the new message.

I used commnode.wav, as that is the sound of Shivan communication.

Quote
The Destroy Bombers directive never marked true. I couldn't ever get it to mark true.

Hmm. I will have to have a look at this.

Quote
Your mission music was all over the place. Between the menu music, action music, and victory music there were multiple musical styles ranging from heavy metal to royal fanfare. My personal preference and recommendation is to make sure all your music fits within a very similar style. I've used this site to find almost all of the music for BtA. It's free, and legal as long as you credit the music authors in your credits file.

Personally I liked the music choices I made. I think the fanfare works well for the victory music. And the metal song was kind of a gag, I am not really planning to use that kind of music again in the campaign, it just sort of fit the tone of the battle I thought.

Quote
I hope that wasn't too critical. I wrote it so as to help you learn more and not to discourage your from creating your campaign.

Thank you, it was very helpful. I am not discouraged.

 

Offline MatthTheGeek

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Re: RELEASE: Legacy of Shiva Part 1 DEMO
Quote
If you are including model files, also include the cache files (data/cache/XXXX.bx).
Are these files generated automatically?
Yes. Cache files are automatically generated by the game the first time you load that pof, if the correct setting is checked in the launcher (I don't have the launcher under my eyes so I can't check, but the setting's description should be pretty obvious). That means we are able to generate them as well the first time we play your mod, so it is not necessary to distribute them, but it's still better to include them with your mod since it's faster to DL them than to generate them.
People are stupid, therefore anything popular is at best suspicious.

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666maslo666: Releasing a finished product is not a good thing! It is a modern fad.

SpardaSon21: it seems like you exist in a permanent state of half-joking misanthropy

Axem: when you put it like that, i sound like an insane person

bigchunk1: it's not retarded it's american!
bigchunk1: ...

batwota: steele's maneuvering for the coup de gras
MatthTheGeek: you mispelled grâce
Awaesaar: grace
batwota: oh right :P
Darius: ah!
Darius: yes, i like that
MatthTheGeek: the way you just spelled it it means fat
Awaesaar: +accent I forgot how to keyboard
MatthTheGeek: or grease
Darius: the killing fat!
Axem: jabba does the coup de gras
MatthTheGeek: XD
Axem: bring me solo and a cookie

 

Offline Legate Damar

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Re: RELEASE: Legacy of Shiva Part 1 DEMO
Okay, got it

  

Offline mjn.mixael

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Re: RELEASE: Legacy of Shiva Part 1 DEMO
Quote
Quote
Here's some specific issues I noticed with the modpack.
You've got several files in two different VPs (intro.ogg is one, and a lot of audio).
I think those were all in sound.vp

No, you have them in BOTH sounds and visuals VPs.

Quote
Quote
You've also got some MVPs models and maps in your modpack. Given that your mod requires MVPs 3.6.12, this isn't necessary unless you actually changed the POFs or textures.
Which ones are these?
It should be pretty simple for you to open up the necessary VPs and make a list yourself.

Quote
Quote
Your mod download includes an empty data folder, that's unnecessary.
So I can just leave the data folder out and it will still work?
Yes

Quote
Quote
I was somewhat disappointed to see that you basically used the exact buttons from my mainhall tutorial. I recommend you try to create something new and different. Perhaps a button style that matches your mod's Shivan tones and styles?
I am not much of an artist and I was worried that if I tried to make buttons they would end up looking like something a 10 year old drew in MSPaint.

I am confident that anyone can come up with a button style, but it's your choice. My tutorial being the only one around about mainhalls, it will be increasingly obvious that you simply used the tutorial buttons.

Quote
Quote
And finally, your cb anims should probably be the same aspect ration across all of them. I recommend 660x300 (the sorta hi-res standard).
I used that for the two I made but the other one was taken from another mod.

I think you've got that backwards. Battleaxe is 330x300. Radar is 400x300. Warp is 660x300. If you aren't going to use 660x300, you should pick one resolution/aspect ratio and stick to that throughout.
Cutscene Upgrade Project - Mainhall Remakes - Between the Ashes
Youtube Channel - P3D Model Box
Between the Ashes is looking for committed testers, PM me for details.
Freespace Upgrade Project See what's happening.

 

Offline Legate Damar

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Re: RELEASE: Legacy of Shiva Part 1 DEMO
Quote
No, you have them in BOTH sounds and visuals VPs.

Huh. That must have been a mistake, I'll have to fix that.

Quote
It should be pretty simple for you to open up the necessary VPs and make a list yourself.

Well I would have to cross-reference each file in my vp with the retail vps... both the mediavps 3.6.12 and the retail vps. That might take a while.

Quote
Yes

Okay thank you.

Quote
I am confident that anyone can come up with a button style, but it's your choice. My tutorial being the only one around about mainhalls, it will be increasingly obvious that you simply used the tutorial buttons.

Well I did change the text color and tint them for being highlighted. Really I would find it hard to make my own buttons that looked good, I don't have any idea how to do that.

Quote
I think you've got that backwards. Battleaxe is 330x300. Radar is 400x300. Warp is 660x300. If you aren't going to use 660x300, you should pick one resolution/aspect ratio and stick to that throughout.

Oh sorry. I had heard that 660x300 was the best.

 

Offline mjn.mixael

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Re: RELEASE: Legacy of Shiva Part 1 DEMO
It would take me the same amount of time to do the file cross referencing. It's your mod, you should do it.

660x300 is what I suggest. What I'm saying is that your 3 anims are all using 3 different resolutions. You should really consolidate that.
Cutscene Upgrade Project - Mainhall Remakes - Between the Ashes
Youtube Channel - P3D Model Box
Between the Ashes is looking for committed testers, PM me for details.
Freespace Upgrade Project See what's happening.

 

Offline Legate Damar

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Re: RELEASE: Legacy of Shiva Part 1 DEMO
I never told you to do it, you must have misinterpreted what I said.

The anims seem to be working fine the way they are but in the future I'll try to keep them at the same dimensions

 

Offline Spoon

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Re: RELEASE: Legacy of Shiva Part 1 DEMO
I agree with mjn.mixael's points, so I won't be repeating those.

Aside from that, I thought this was pretty good for a first attempt. I kinda liked the humour and I can appreciate how you went through the effort of removing the default fs intro and mainhall. It gives a pretty good first impression when you start up the mod.
Just make sure you use starfield.pof for the inmission background, the retail stars aren't looking so hot.
Urutorahappī!!

[02:42] <@Axem> spoon somethings wrong
[02:42] <@Axem> critically wrong
[02:42] <@Axem> im happy with these missions now
[02:44] <@Axem> well
[02:44] <@Axem> with 2 of them

 

Offline Legate Damar

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Re: RELEASE: Legacy of Shiva Part 1 DEMO
Thank you, I will keep that in mind.

 

Offline Legate Damar

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Re: RELEASE: Legacy of Shiva Part 1 DEMO (UPDATED)
Just made an update, I fixed a lot of the problems people were pointing out, as well as making some other changes (such as making the background better), etc. I also removed a lot of the redundant files (not sure I caught them all, though, but I cut the download by over 20 megs so I got a good amount of them).

However I won't be able to continue working on this campaign unless I can get my hands on some unreleased assets, and since Spoon seems to be ignoring my PMs (  :( ) I doubt I'll get them for quite a while.

(Though if you read this Spoon, I don't really need all of that stuff I asked you for, in fact I could do a lot with only those two ships I requested in my latest PM. If you don't want to give them to me, fine, but at least let me know that you don't).

 

Offline MatthTheGeek

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Re: RELEASE: Legacy of Shiva Part 1 DEMO (UPDATED)
Maybe his PM box is full...
People are stupid, therefore anything popular is at best suspicious.

Mod management tools     -     Wiki stuff!     -     Help us help you

666maslo666: Releasing a finished product is not a good thing! It is a modern fad.

SpardaSon21: it seems like you exist in a permanent state of half-joking misanthropy

Axem: when you put it like that, i sound like an insane person

bigchunk1: it's not retarded it's american!
bigchunk1: ...

batwota: steele's maneuvering for the coup de gras
MatthTheGeek: you mispelled grâce
Awaesaar: grace
batwota: oh right :P
Darius: ah!
Darius: yes, i like that
MatthTheGeek: the way you just spelled it it means fat
Awaesaar: +accent I forgot how to keyboard
MatthTheGeek: or grease
Darius: the killing fat!
Axem: jabba does the coup de gras
MatthTheGeek: XD
Axem: bring me solo and a cookie

 

Offline Legate Damar

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Re: RELEASE: Legacy of Shiva Part 1 DEMO (UPDATED)
Do messages just not go through if it's full?

 

Offline MatthTheGeek

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Re: RELEASE: Legacy of Shiva Part 1 DEMO (UPDATED)
Precisely.
People are stupid, therefore anything popular is at best suspicious.

Mod management tools     -     Wiki stuff!     -     Help us help you

666maslo666: Releasing a finished product is not a good thing! It is a modern fad.

SpardaSon21: it seems like you exist in a permanent state of half-joking misanthropy

Axem: when you put it like that, i sound like an insane person

bigchunk1: it's not retarded it's american!
bigchunk1: ...

batwota: steele's maneuvering for the coup de gras
MatthTheGeek: you mispelled grâce
Awaesaar: grace
batwota: oh right :P
Darius: ah!
Darius: yes, i like that
MatthTheGeek: the way you just spelled it it means fat
Awaesaar: +accent I forgot how to keyboard
MatthTheGeek: or grease
Darius: the killing fat!
Axem: jabba does the coup de gras
MatthTheGeek: XD
Axem: bring me solo and a cookie

 

Offline Legate Damar

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Re: RELEASE: Legacy of Shiva Part 1 DEMO (UPDATED)
Oh. Well will you download the updated version and tell me what you think please?

 

Offline Spoon

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Re: RELEASE: Legacy of Shiva Part 1 DEMO (UPDATED)
(Though if you read this Spoon, I don't really need all of that stuff I asked you for, in fact I could do a lot with only those two ships I requested in my latest PM. If you don't want to give them to me, fine, but at least let me know that you don't).
I thought my last pm was quite clear...

Also, rather than putting up repeated updates to a single mission demo, I'd highly recommend finding one or two beta testers who you can throw updates at and then get their feedback.
Not to mention that planning your campaign around unreleased assets seem like a very unpractical thing to do...
Urutorahappī!!

[02:42] <@Axem> spoon somethings wrong
[02:42] <@Axem> critically wrong
[02:42] <@Axem> im happy with these missions now
[02:44] <@Axem> well
[02:44] <@Axem> with 2 of them

 

Offline Legate Damar

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Re: RELEASE: Legacy of Shiva Part 1 DEMO (UPDATED)
You sent me one PM telling me you weren't going to give me all of that stuff I asked for, so then I asked for just two ships... you still haven't gotten back to me on that.

I don't know where to find testers.

 
Re: RELEASE: Legacy of Shiva Part 1 DEMO (UPDATED)
You could ask for special testers in this thread, but I suppose that would just be crazy talk.
17:37:02   Quanto: I want to have sexual intercourse with every space elf in existence
17:37:11   SpardaSon21: even the males?
17:37:22   Quanto: its not gay if its an elf

[21:51] <@Droid803> I now realize
[21:51] <@Droid803> this will be SLIIIIIGHTLY awkward
[21:51] <@Droid803> as this rich psychic girl will now be tsundere for a loli.
[21:51] <@Droid803> OH WELLL.

See what you're missing in #WoD and #Fsquest?

[07:57:32] <Caiaphas> inspired by HerraTohtori i built a supermaneuverable plane in ksp
[07:57:43] <Caiaphas> i just killed my pilots with a high-g maneuver
[07:58:19] <Caiaphas> apparently people can't take 20 gees for 5 continuous seconds
[08:00:11] <Caiaphas> the plane however performed admirably, and only crashed because it no longer had any guidance systems