[CT27]

Thanks for the new campaign!


2.21 and 2.22 were released on the Installer; is it possible 2.23 could be put on that too?

[Axem]

At some point. It's not a huge priority. Maybe after all the obvious bugs get shaken out.

[Nightmare]

2.21 and 2.22 were released on the Installer; is it possible 2.23 could be put on that too?

You can just DL the files from Knossos website and put them into the same folder .21 and .22 are in.

[CT27]

2.21 and 2.22 were released on the Installer; is it possible 2.23 could be put on that too?

You can just DL the files from Knossos website and put them into the same folder .21 and .22 are in.

Thanks for the info.  Since I downloaded 2.21/2.22 years ago, when I put 2.23 in I'll have to change the mod.ini to point to the MVPs 4.0 folder, correct?

[Axem]

Yes, but the files for JAD2.21 and 2.22 have been updated and you will need to redownload them for 2.23 to work right. I updated the main release thread to have links to the knossos page where you can manually download the VPs.

[Nightmare]

https://fsnebula.org/mod/jad2_21
https://fsnebula.org/mod/jad2_22
https://fsnebula.org/mod/jad223

[Thisisaverylongusername]

Well, that was a lot of fun. I was smiling and laughing for basically the whole campaign!

Some highlights for me:

Spoiler:

The way you did the close-up shots of various ships during the campaign was excellent.
The Titanic Unicorn felt closer to a narwhal than a unicorn for me. Still, though, how much influence did Holley have in that project?
The GTB Rheavengeance from the dream mission was cool and funny, the shot of the jaw opening to reveal the cannon was one of my favorites.
I actually died on the sequence where you destroy the transmitters on the Molybdenum Gear and saw that game over screen. Really went the extra mile there.
The revelation that Epsilon 1 was actually (an) Alpha 1 caught me a bit by surprise, but it definitely made sense after some thought.
The various anime songs during the sequence where you escape Alpha 1's memories really got me pumped.
The way the percentages increased as you collected the cores was amusing.
Changing the time compression to make the overloaded berserk mode easier to handle was definitely a good idea.
STEELE 05 kept his hat for the escape sequence!

Things I didn't quite like:

Spoiler:

The mission where you defeat Henrietta CTD'd twice for me. May try to get a debug log eventually, but the third time was the charm. Also, flying the Rhea makes the first parts of that mission completely trivial.
For as cool as it was, I felt the sequences where you escape from Alpha 1's memories and where STEELE tries to lure Holley away with temptations were a little too long.

Overall, very well done. This was a fun ride!

[Axem]

Glad to hear you liked it and had a fun time.

[Nightmare]

PLEASE make a checkpoint after the datepart in Just Another Date. pls

[Axem]

Hmm... That's fair I guess. The skip is farther inside the mission and I get that it'd be a pain to have to keep going back. I'll add it to the to-do list for the next patch.

[CKid]

Have you ever watched a show/anime that you're a huge fan of and it delivers an epic finale that hits all the right notes and satisfying conclusion? Have you ever got to the end of a novel or movie and feel sadness knowing that the story is over, wishing it would continue on? That's how I'am feeling. Axem, give yourself a bow cause I standing up and applauding.

If I remember correctly, you posted that for this final release, you were thinking of having a single mission and the rest would be in a visual novel sequence. I am very thankful that you decided to end it the way you did. The missions were intense and heart-pounding, the music evoked all of the right emotions. The in-game cut-scene choreography is stellar and somehow you were able to still cram it full of humor.

Many of my highlights were the same as those already posted in this thread however I wanted to make a special mention to one in particular: "Alpha 1 Forever". The whole mission is just so much fun and chaotic with the music hyping you up along the way. Battling all the beta testers at once in a limited time window added an extra adrenaline rush. I managed to win on my first try with a few seconds to spare and I got to say, I really felt like an Alpha 1 afterwards. It may very well be my new favorite Freespace mission of any mod campaign out there.

Its very hard to believe that this story that started way back in 2011 has finally come to a end. I can barely remember what the first release of JAD 2.21 looked like without the extras that been added to it. Look how far its come. Thank you for sticking with it and creating this masterpiece of a series!

[Axem]

Thanks so much for the kind review! And thanks for being a fan since the beginning! Hard to believe that much time has passed since the first JAD release.

Alpha 1 Forever is my favorite mission in the whole campaign too. When I was making it I was thinking about my original cut down plans, "if JAD2.23 was only going to have one mission, this would be it". It's also kind of funny that the mission wasn't part of the original outline, it was some "what if I..." and going full effort on everything that brought about making the mission. So I'm really glad to see it all paid off wonderfully.

[JSRNerdo]

I've just finished playing 2.23.

Wow. I don't think I have the words to describe the feeling of sheer love for Freespace I got from playing the campaign, so I'll just leave off with this: Thank you Axem.

[Axem]

You are most certainly welcome, and thank you for playing it.

I am interested to hear any thoughts or highlights or silly stuff you liked, even if it was mentioned before. I can never get enough of hearing what people enjoyed, even if its the same stuff over and over. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.

[FrikgFeek]

JAD 2.23 is good. Really damn good. I finished my first playthrough shortly after release and recently finished my third one. And I still find it really hard to say anything meaningful about it aside from "it's good because it's fun". The bosses aren't as complex or gimmicky as 2.21 or 2.22 and the core mechanics and weapons are still essentially the same but most of the missions take their core concept to its absolute extreme, fitting for the last entry in the 2.2......... series.

The mission with the 5 gates is a real standout.

Spoiler:

As you fight through the various FSO mod universes and finally end up with a massive multi-boss battle against most previous JAD 2.2 bosses in the end. The way that fight is carefully choreographed behind the scenes and the way it reacts to which bosses you choose to go after first is just great. It's also a real challenge for both your planning, 3D awareness, and pure piloting skills as you kite the bosses around and take them down 1 by 1 while exploiting each one's unique weak points.

It's not as intricately detailed or polished as BtA, its core flight and combat aren't as cathartic as WoD, and its story isn't as gripping as BP. But it's just straight up "fun" as much as that word has lost any real meaning in relation to video game discussion.

Spoiler:

Also Axem you owe me a new gamepad, all the side-thruster abuse broke my D-pad. I'll be expecting it by February, sent by royal carrier pigeons

[Axem]

And I still find it really hard to say anything meaningful about it aside from "it's good because it's fun".

Guys, you're killing me here.

But thanks for the kind words and kind review. It's good to hear that mission is another highlight to someone.

Spoiler:

Also Axem you owe me a new gamepad, all the side-thruster abuse broke my D-pad. I'll be expecting it by February, sent by royal carrier pigeons

Just as planned.

[Volta]

When i heard that jad 2.23 was about to be released i was like 'ah sh*t here we go again' and played it chronologically again for like the 5th time just to refresh my mind again.
the beginning in 2.23 was really good for me (the first mission is probably the most hype/epic moment i ever had in the jad series), i would even say too good of a beginning that i set my expectations too high.

The inside jokes were the best thing about JAD (and the crazy amounts of fun gameplay in 2.2x) kept me coming back after many years, but for some reason when i saw the 'the end' after the credits i was like 'what? no way!'.

The first red flag for me was the mission select screen having less main missions, now i don't think that a campaign needs 32 missions and more, i prefer 16 or less in my opinion and i thought jad2.22 was hitting the sweet spot perfectly, but not even optional missions in 2.23?

So after finishing all of the JAD campaigns chronologically i had the following questions in mind:
Where are the optional missions in 2.23?
Where is the club room content in 2.23?
Also playing more as alex or even once as meddy,sherry or harriet could have been fun.

Spoiler:

What happened to the first and eight beta tester in 2.23?
Why does alpha 1 have suddenly a gf in 2.23 when he clearly doesn't have anyone close in the original trilogy?
Why is there a sudden skip into the future in 2.23's ending when JAD3 exists?
Why should anyone play JAD1,2,3 when it probably is not even part of the 2.2x universe? is 1.0 and 2.0 even canon at this point? i mean those two alpha 1's are completelly different in how they act.
How does FRED even return in JAD3? is it first and eight beta tester related?
Am i doing something wrong when i play the JAD original with the new campaigns in the JAD1 -> JAD2 -> JAD2.21 -> JAD2.22 -> JAD2.23 -> JAD3 fashion?
How can playing this in a chronological order be more confusing to me than the entire evangelion plot???

I don't know why but for the first time i felt actually mixed/confused about JAD's story. 
Unless i am doing it wrong and shouldn't actually play them that way but by release date instead. 

The lack of optional content makes me feel like that this release could have been better if it was in development for another year or two, but that doesn't mean i suddenly dislike JAD, i thought there was much more in terms of optional content when there wasn't at all since that was actually something that i really liked personally.

The fredding on the other hand... holy f... some missions i would have thought they would never be possible or would crash instantly but man i can't believe how the engine can even handle all of this complex scripting, no really i never crashed once and it was rock stable but maybe some fps drops but good lord this is just absolute fun and insanity: the campaign. 

[Axem]

Hey, thanks a lot for playing and I'm glad you enjoyed it!

Like you, I'm a little sad that there wasn't more of JAD to completely finish everything off or answer every single question. I made a post a couple years ago expressing at how difficult and draining it became to keep on making content like this and I was unsure what exactly JAD2.23 was going to even look like. At the start of 2019 I felt I had gotten enough creative energy back to finish off JAD in a satisfying way, and I gave myself a deadline of "by end of the year". And I'm pretty happy I managed to hit that. I didn't get to include everything I wanted, but I wouldn't have liked to hold up release because of optional extra stuff. But not only that, but while I was making the ending, I was almost all out of energy and motivation. And just the closure and finality of everything made it hard to even think about new stuff. It's like everyone's story here is now more or less over. It felt weird to try and reopen that again.

So I hope you can understand why there's no extra content. I did have some rough plans for some. I'll share some details about it later, but don't count on it being made.

And to give general answers to your other questions...

Spoiler:

What happened to the first and eight beta tester in 2.23?
FRED is the First Beta Tester (as he would have to be the first one to play his own missions), the Eighth went on some other weird adventure in other dimensions. But she did eventually return for JAD3 for the GTVAngelion mission.

Why does alpha 1 have suddenly a gf in 2.23 when he clearly doesn't have anyone close in the original trilogy?
Alpha/Epsilon 1 was single in JAD 1 and 2, him and Harriet only became a thing in JAD2.23. The Alpha 1 in JAD3 is a different Alpha 1.

Why is there a sudden skip into the future in 2.23's ending when JAD3 exists?
So I realize I'm reeeeally stretching the timelines and stuff but JAD3 hasn't happened yet in the flash forward in 2.23's ending. (Holley's kid asks what happened to FRED, so he hasn't returned yet). I realize that this makes JAD3 take place some 30-40 years after FS2 and they're still using FS2 ships but uh... FRED really likes retail ships?

Why should anyone play JAD1,2,3 when it probably is not even part of the 2.2x universe? is 1.0 and 2.0 even canon at this point? i mean those two alpha 1's are completelly different in how they act.
That's a pretty interesting question and I think that is the primary issue Holley has when she discovers this truth too. What is the real truth, and what does it mean to me? Does this glaring contradiction mean everything born from it make it worthless? Stuff to discuss and think about!

How does FRED even return in JAD3? is it first and eight beta tester related?
Mysteries!

Am i doing something wrong when i play the JAD original with the new campaigns in the JAD1 -> JAD2 -> JAD2.21 -> JAD2.22 -> JAD2.23 -> JAD3 fashion?
You can play however you like!

How can playing this in a chronological order be more confusing to me than the entire evangelion plot???
That's up to you and your FRED.

[Darius]

Just finished this. Thought I'd throw out a few rambling thoughts and impressions while I've still got it fresh in my mind.

I went in expecting a fun and light-hearted conclusion to the adventures of Holley and friends, using the power of friendship to overcome the bad guys.

(Don't get me wrong, the finale delievered this in spades)

But I wasn't expecting the unabashed love letter to FreeSpace and its community. I'm talking about "Alpha 1 Forever", a mission that will be talked about long into the future whenever someone brings up JAD. When the

Spoiler:

HLP community members

started appearing as well as the

Spoiler:

references to Inferno, Blue Planet, Derelict etc,

I admit I did feel a flicker of emotion. (I ended up failing that mission about ten times, so definitely lots of emotion involved; the difficulty of the JAD beta tester battle was brutal even at the easiest difficulty setting).

I've only taken a passing interest in anime in the past and I haven't seen Evangelion, so I suspect a lot of the references were lost to me. However I do feel that a lot of the themes of JAD (+/- Evangelion?) are universal: the power of friendship to overcome, Love Conquers All, the real Alpha 1 were the friends we made along the way etc.

My personal highlights:

Spoiler:

• MOOOOOOO
• In fact the entire MGS battle was awesome and entertaining (so much so that I didn't mind hammering at the mission for three or four attempts - that final transmitter was a tough beast)
• Henrietta's Final Form
• Beautiful winged seraphim Herc 2's flying in a distant circle. I would have enjoyed more development about STEELE's different projects - the contrast between the nightmares and the winged fighters was a nice touch - but I understand time and creative energy was a big factor towards the end there.
• Alpha 1 Forever

JAD is one big massive tribute to the HLP commuinity and the love of FreeSpace and I'll echo previous posters by saying again: Thank you Axem.

[Axem]

Thanks so much! And not to deflect any appreciation, but really thank you for your own works that have helped shaped this evolution of JAD. Just the idea that FS campaigns could be more than just war stories and transactional battles. They could be about people, with either their own little battles they set themselves up for or just trying to find a place in a big giant uncaring universe. (Also stealing the name of a primary antagonist for my own primary antagonist with similar cold hearted plans and ideals).

I've only taken a passing interest in anime in the past and I haven't seen Evangelion, so I suspect a lot of the references were lost to me. However I do feel that a lot of the themes of JAD (+/- Evangelion?) are universal: the power of friendship to overcome, Love Conquers All, the real Alpha 1 were the friends we made along the way etc.

I'm happy that worked out. I try not to front load JAD with references and in-jokes too much so I can actually have my own writing in there and let people unfamiliar with the source material have some fun too. But uh yeah, Eva does not have as happy or uplifting messages like JAD. Quite the opposite...

Spoiler:

I would have enjoyed more development about STEELE's different projects - the contrast between the nightmares and the winged fighters was a nice touch - but I understand time and creative energy was a big factor towards the end there.

Spoiler:

STEELE was fun to write, especially coming up with over-complicated background projects, so more indeed would have been nice. Who knows what the future might hold though. Anna and Nick: Mom and Pop Bounty Hunters destroying STEELE's old unfinished projects? (Coming 2049!)