[mjn.mixael]

BtA: Mefistofele Release!

The BtA Team is proud to release this small 2 mission demo. Consider it more like a prequel to BtA: Slaves of Chaos. In Mefistofele, you'll fly with local criminals and smugglers as they seek to make a simple profit, but they might have gotten in over their heads this time.

You might also want to read these and/or our pages on the Wiki.

Feel free to join #bta on IRC for discussion/support.

Team & Testers
Team
MjnMixael - Project Lead
MatthTheGeek - Modpack Extraordinaire
RgaNoris - Voice
Snail - Critical Critique
Slasher - Speed FRED
SDM - Testing, Grammar, & General Shenanigans

Testers
Admiral MS - Testing & Checkpoint Script <- SUPER THANKS
Bigchunk1 - Testing
Oddgrim - Testing










To Install:

You may install this manually, or you may also use the Freespace Installer.

Download these required files and unzip them to 'game/freespace2'. You should end up with 3 VPs in 'games/freespace2/BtA Demo'. The MediaVPs 3.6.12 are required to play, you can get them here.

BTA_DEMO_Root (V1.1): MediaFire | MjnServ
7z: f97e91526552fe6b867cc592e4e17702
VP: 706eebd0c2711d850af414b115013249

BTA_DEMO_Assets1: MediaFire | MjnServ
7z: 213ca83731d959d79fe36880cbf70ae6
VP: 52cfa540167d280df846daea0e273d86

BTA_DEMO_Assets2: MediaFire | MjnServ
7z: 5850ec117082a562e60563a04b6de283
VP: fba32f83b6ca18e26c332a9bf8b247f8

Version 1.1 Patch
-Restructures HUD to use the more modern system that should not limit gameplay resolutions.

BTA_DEMO_Patch_1_1: MediaFire | MjnServ
VP: f6f5b567fe9380e79c4611d7fb2ef41e

All files also mirrored on freespacemods.net as a single download.

Optional:

If you have a slower machine, or you experience lagging with the mainhall menu, download this pack and unzip it to your 'games/freespace2' folder. It will place a fourth VP in you 'games/freespace2/BtA Demo' folder.

BTA_DEMO_00LowEnd: MediaFire | MjnServ
7z: 192a045e90479e7570bdd647eae6f183
VP: e500623ed6ee6e4b6f5d943bf4023e18

To Play:

Select the mod 'BtA Demo' with your launcher (I personally love to use wxLauncher!) and make sure you are running 3.6.14 RC6 or greater.

Known Issues:

• Some HUD gauges don't change color properly. This is caused by a bug that has been fixed post 3.6.14 RC6.
• It's possible that checkpoints won't work on operating systems other than Windows. This is because our checkpoint system saves data to a file in the mod folder instead of FRED variables. We have not had any Mac or Linux testers. We would love to hear feedback on this.

Debug Info:

Checksums

Code: [Select]

Found root pack 'E:\FreeSpace2\BtA Demo\BTA_DEMO_00LowEnd.vp' with a checksum of 0x71ad0d7c
Found root pack 'E:\FreeSpace2\BtA Demo\BTA_DEMO_Assets1.vp' with a checksum of 0x29a49c25
Found root pack 'E:\FreeSpace2\BtA Demo\BTA_DEMO_Assets2.vp' with a checksum of 0xfa97a65e
Found root pack 'E:\FreeSpace2\BtA Demo\BTA_DEMO_Root.vp' with a checksum of 0x569d815a
File Counts

Code: [Select]

Searching root pack 'E:\FreeSpace2\BtA Demo\BTA_DEMO_00LowEnd.vp' ... 3 files
Searching root pack 'E:\FreeSpace2\BtA Demo\BTA_DEMO_Assets1.vp' ... 455 files
Searching root pack 'E:\FreeSpace2\BtA Demo\BTA_DEMO_Assets2.vp' ... 2346 files
Searching root pack 'E:\FreeSpace2\BtA Demo\BTA_DEMO_Root.vp' ... 201 files

[CommanderDJ]

* CommanderDJ sets up camp.

[CKid]

I brought marshmallows.

[headdie]

I got the bug nets

[0rph3u5]

I'd keep an eye here but the stupid thing is attached somewhere in my head... so old fashioned topic watching...

Also I brought a lighter...

[Oddgrim]

I'll go get wood!

[Rodo]

I'm watching SIR, YES SIR.

[mjn.mixael]

The Demo has been released! See first post.

[Rodo]

Seems like I'll be playing FS tonight

[Shivan Hunter]

woooot, someone else is using my ships *happy dance*

DL'ing now!

[Commander Zane]

Awesome missions, backgrounds, assets, and even more awesome music.
The only thing I don't like is how short it is.
In all seriousness this is a great teaser.

Though having that taste of BtA tells me Slaves of Chaos is going to be way up on the list of must-play campaigns.

[MrTealTwo]

DL'd, played, t'was good Somewhat unlike anything else, if only a demo. Very cool was the inclusion of the Mustangs and the Shrikes (if the latter only in Tech Room). A nice nod to the TVWP. Much luck with the Slaves of Chaos release

[Black Wolf]

Congrats fellas. Will DL and play when I get back from work in a few days.

[CKid]

This demo was great. The second mission had me on the edge of my seat and music selection was prefect. Want more!

[Spoon]

This has exceeded any expectations I've had for BtA.
This demo has me mighty impressed, its really really cool. I'll go indepth some more later.

[mjn.mixael]

Thanks for the positive feedback! Give it up for Slasher though, because he did all of the mission design here based on (couldn't have been more than..) a 4 sentence story synopsis I gave him.

[achtung]

mirurrrrer


http://www.freespacemods.net/download.php?view.845

[Satellight]

A little review...

Spoiler:

-General feeling of the demo was pretty awesome, especially with the music who fit perfectly with the mod's mood, as CKid wrote. 
-In fact, the SIZE of the uncompressed demo already impressed me (911 Mb ?!? A distress call for low-bandwith users  )
-There is a little problem if you use the checkpoint system in mission 2 (F***ing Death Squadron  ) : The hotkeys (i.e. F6 for the Mako) won't work anymore...
-Apart from this point, nothing to say. Oh yes, one little thing : Pretty impatient to play the full version !

Non Spoiler:

Awesome.

[mjn.mixael]

A little review...

Spoiler:

-General feeling of the demo was pretty awesome, especially with the music who fit perfectly with the mod's mood, as CKid wrote. 
-In fact, the SIZE of the uncompressed demo already impressed me (911 Mb ?!? A distress call for low-bandwith users  )
-There is a little problem if you use the checkpoint system in mission 2 (F***ing Death Squadron  ) : The hotkeys (i.e. F6 for the Mako) won't work anymore...
-Apart from this point, nothing to say. Oh yes, one little thing : Pretty impatient to play the full version !

Non Spoiler:

Awesome.

Thanks! The music mostly comes from newgrounds.com. It's all in the credits.tbl. And yes, the mod is huge for only two missions.. we just had a lot of assets that needed to be included since we aren't using almost any of the FS2 ships.

Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure hotkeys being reset on mission-replay is an SCP code issue. If you completely restart FSO, then hotkeys should return to normal. I think it's been reported on Mantis.

[Eratharon]

Downloaded it, played it and it reeeeeally got me hooked. Waiting for the full release to play the **** out of it.