Thank you !
I was wondering if I should use (or not) send-message-list, but since they used chained events in retail FS2 missions, I wanted to be on the safe side. It looks like I have my answer now.
At first I thought Volition developers always separated ship movements and other events from the dialogue-only events. It looks like I was wrong, sometimes they are mixed, but I still don't really understand the logic to make completely clean event chains. I'm not sure either when I should use a [chained event with a chain delay] or a [non-chained event triggered by a "is-event-true-delay"] or either a ["is-previous-event-true"].
Any rule of thumb for the coding style ?
For the cargo/scannable thing : I didn't know about. I'm going to fix it.
I knew about the disabled trigger ship thing (I sometimes break retail missions using this trick), just forgot to include it in my own piece of fredding.
I thought about splitting the first dialogue and sending the second half during AKH docking, but I felt it would have been a bit too obvious that the news report about Akheton buying Freedom Shipyard and the player escorting an Akheton ship right there were closely related. It is already obvious, I don't want to be insulting to a player's intellect !
Instead, I will use the background shipyard activity to tell the player something wrong is happening. Like a dialogue between an other security patrol and a freighter refusing to move, and maybe another news report about things getting worse.
I try to find a better dialogue for the station going on strike and taking Zod engineers hostages.
About the setting : the Iceni will be docked in a Ganymede just next to the shipyard, and maybe in the briefing too.
Why did Bosch chose to do a coup on this precise day ?
- economic crisis in Polaris is at its worst, Terran violence against Vasudan workers is bursting.
- the government of Polaris is about to fall : they are trying to avoid a blood bath while maintaining the rule of law.
- Neo-Terran ideology is stronger than ever, shaping the whole public opinion.
- the great war has been over for a while. Most Soldiers in Polaris are from Polaris, and share people's feeling about Vasudans.
- an out of control strike in Freedom Shipyards could threaten vital assets for the Iceni project.
Bosch can't let that happen. He claims authority while the civilian government falls. Neo-Terran forces only choice is to form a new government under Bosch. They can do whatever they want (including anti vasudans policies) as long as they are no threat to Bosch ultimate goal. Bosch provides them with the support of 6th fleet major assets.
The whole thing in this mission will be about getting out of Polaris. Maybe you can get some Zods out of this mess too ? Maybe you want the NTF to trust you by killing (or ignoring) some zods ? Maybe sticking with Bosch's orders is safer ? Who do you chose to trust Pilot ? And what the hell is the Trinity doing here ?!
Next parts in the mission :
1) GTVA reinforcements, Zod marines dock with the station, trying to get their people back. Things get ugly, civilian deaths, GTVA marines firing at the crowd... Alpha loses 2 control (first choice : kill Alpha 2 and save Zods ? What to do with Alpha 3 ?)
2) Get to the node : full Zod escort mission ? or send them to hell and get out of here ? This includes AI sending you trebuchets...
3) The first part on the truth about Arthur Roemig.
Each choice you make can go into a global variable giving you NTF points or GTVA points. This could be of use if I do another mission linked with this one.
