Author Topic: If you had to change one FS2 Mission..  (Read 6873 times)

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Offline FIZ

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If you had to change one FS2 Mission..
If you had to redesign a single FS2 mission with assets available now (especially more powerful PCs) what would it be and why?

High Noon is where I start.  I wouldn't completely BOE it, but for such a climax mission, its rather underwhelming.  Shivans might still just roll in with just the Sathanas, but I can't see the GTVA unleashing the Collie without a fierce escort.

That said, I think the BP AOA mission against the Sathanas is a tip of the hat to the original High Noon, I'd like to discuss what other missions felt like they were scaled back due to hardware constraints of 1999.

 

Offline General Battuta

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Re: If you had to change one FS2 Mission..
Their Finest Hour

 
Re: If you had to change one FS2 Mission..
Yeah, hard to argue with that one. Is the cut VA in a recoverable state?
The good Christian should beware of mathematicians, and all those who make empty prophecies. The danger already exists that the mathematicians have made a covenant with the devil to darken the spirit and to confine man in the bonds of Hell.

 

Offline NGTM-1R

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Re: If you had to change one FS2 Mission..
A Lion At The Door. Most of the difficulty, and hence most of the menace of the Shivans, is lost when you realize that it comes from being essentially forced into using the wrong fighter. Turn it into a mission suited to a Herc II and make it hard as such, not a mission poorly suited to one and hence difficult.
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Offline niffiwan

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Re: If you had to change one FS2 Mission..
I liked this remake of Their Finest Hour, admittedly I haven't played it many times to see if the balance/challenge is good.

http://www.freespacemods.net/download.php?view.499
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Offline procdrone

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Re: If you had to change one FS2 Mission..
I liked this remake of Their Finest Hour, admittedly I haven't played it many times to see if the balance/challenge is good.

http://www.freespacemods.net/download.php?view.499

I agree. This mission made the Collossus something else than just a shivan target hulk and gave the mission some sense of tactics
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Offline Droid803

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Re: If you had to change one FS2 Mission..
A Game of TAG.

Nebula so you can't see ****. Forced to carry a bank of useless primaries (Prom-R). Forced to use dumbfire missiles (TAG-A) from a trash fighter with secondary points too far apart to use them (Ulysses). Tasked with protecting a ship that dies to being looked at (AWACS) being attacked by uninterruptible weapons (swarm missiles) to which the only defence is relying purely on a luck-based gimmick (ULTRA-AAAs) to kill them before they fire it off.

Just a cluster of annoying limitations to force the player to use the one stupid gimmick of which the effectiveness of is actually quite random (especially since you're essentially forced into relying entirely on it due to the forced removal of every other possible option you could have had) to create difficulty. Artificial as hell. I hate this mission.

If they wanted to sell the TAG system they should have done it by making it an actual option that is effective over existing options, instead of removing every single option which is actually effective to force you into using it. Reeks of terrible weapon design of the TAG system in general and is exactly why identically zero people have actually willingly taken TAG missiles to any other mission, because they're useless.
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Offline CP5670

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Re: If you had to change one FS2 Mission..
Yeah, that mission would get my vote as well. The TAG-A is frustrating to use, with its slow speed and reload time compounded by the Ulysses' crappy hardpoints. The TAG-B is actually better but still needs to have missions designed specifically for it (i.e. with Ultra AAA beams) which don't exist elsewhere in the campaign.

Some missions like Their Finest Hour and Into the Lion's Den are bad from a technical standpoint (broken waypoints and beams, unnamed ships, etc.), but are still fun to play. This one is not.

  
Re: If you had to change one FS2 Mission..
Some missions like Their Finest Hour and Into the Lion's Den are bad from a technical standpoint (broken waypoints and beams, unnamed ships, etc.), but are still fun to play. This one is not.
Basically my thoughts. While these missions certainly could have been better, they are still pretty fun to play. Contrast that with missions with genuinely terrible design, such as Game of TAG, Slaying Ravana or High Noon.

Still, if I were to pick one ... I'd say Slaying Ravana. While Game of TAG manages the feat of being godawful to play on any difficulty level, it still has OK dialogue and sees the brief return of Kappa wing's last survivor, who manages to do some ominous foreshadowing before dying. While High Noon gives the player nothing to do beyond poping the Sathanas' remaining beams if it still has any, and the face off between the two ends up being rather anti-climactic, it is still a turning point in the story with plenty of build up (although said build up is arguably what makes the mission rather underwhelming) and again the dialogue manages to elevate things a bit. Slaying Ravana is painful to play through beyond the easy difficulty setting due to poor balance, has next to no dialogue, mission events or build up beyond it blowing up a corvette in the previous mission.

 

Offline Trivial Psychic

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Re: If you had to change one FS2 Mission..
Sounds like "Freespace2: Reborn" in the wings?  ;)
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Offline niffiwan

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Re: If you had to change one FS2 Mission..
In relation to A Game of TAG, there was a SCP code change years ago that made that mission substantially harder. The retail behaviour of "turret-tagged-only" was to fire on tagged targets AND bombs; this was changed to be only tagged targets and only recently changed back to retail behaviour. Firing on the bombs is super important as the Ultra AAA's tend to hit the bombers at the same time which draws them on to the Deimos instead of the AWACS. Try the mission again with 3.7.2, it will be a lot easier, less luck based and less frustrating! :)

(naturally that doesn't detract from the other issues raised with the mission!)

As for Slaying Ravana, on my insane playthrough I took a Medusa as the most maneuverable bomber available and just hid behind the Sobek after firing maybe one set of bombs into the Ravana on my way there. That mission was insanely (haha) hard otherwise.
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Offline General Battuta

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Re: If you had to change one FS2 Mission..
Yeah, exactly. I've always remembered that mission as a pretty reasonably exciting power trip.

 
Re: If you had to change one FS2 Mission..
Sounds like "Freespace2: Reborn" in the wings?  ;)

That's been bounced around a few times on BP IRC. There were a lot of cool ideas going further than just mission tweaks, like a general fighter/weapon rebalance.
The good Christian should beware of mathematicians, and all those who make empty prophecies. The danger already exists that the mathematicians have made a covenant with the devil to darken the spirit and to confine man in the bonds of Hell.

 

Offline BirdofPrey

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Re: If you had to change one FS2 Mission..
I'm not sure where this hate for the Ulysseys comes from.
She's a fine fighter if you fly her right.  The problem what that it was the scenario might not have been the best fit, and the loadout was bad.

Still, I agree, that had to be the worst, most frustrating mission there is.
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Re: If you had to change one FS2 Mission..
For me it is also "High Noon"

Because it was simply dissapointing... a Sathanas that sends only two wings against you... , and a vanished Demon destroyer from Bearbeating (if you could not stop it)... it should be a much better climax.
But i think that "Doomsday" in Freespace 1 was also somewhat underwhelming...

I like Their finest Hour much more than High Noon... because the Colossus killed even a Ravana before it goes down.
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Re: If you had to change one FS2 Mission..
The only major problem I recall having in A Game of TAG was that Alpha 2 got her engines shot out but was guardianed so she just ended up stranded, and it seemed like there was some event trigger that got held up as a result.
The good Christian should beware of mathematicians, and all those who make empty prophecies. The danger already exists that the mathematicians have made a covenant with the devil to darken the spirit and to confine man in the bonds of Hell.

 

Offline mr.WHO

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Re: If you had to change one FS2 Mission..
The mission where Aquitanie, Psamtic and some third destroyer was to engage first Sarthanas inside the nebula - I think the Bearbating was the name of the mission. I'd actually want to see how did GTVA planed to execute the conventional Destroyers/Fighters/Bomber strike against Sath.

 

Offline Thisisaverylongusername

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Re: If you had to change one FS2 Mission..
The mission where Aquitanie, Psamtic and some third destroyer was to engage first Sarthanas inside the nebula - I think the Bearbating was the name of the mission. I'd actually want to see how did GTVA planed to execute the conventional Destroyers/Fighters/Bomber strike against Sath.

I know the mission you are talking about, but it was not Bearbaiting. I don't remember exactly, but I think it was Return to Babel?
If the opposite of pro is con, then is the opposite of progress Congress?

 
Re: If you had to change one FS2 Mission..
That would be Speaking in Tongues.

 

Offline mr.WHO

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Re: If you had to change one FS2 Mission..
Yeah that one!. I wonder if GVD Toeris is Hatshepsut or Typhon?