Author Topic: RELEASE: The Scroll of Atankharzim, Part I  (Read 204025 times)

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Offline 0rph3u5

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Re: RELEASE: The Scroll of Atankharzim, Part I
Quote
A few things I'd advise:
- The debriefing for Through the Looking Glas could use another stage to convey the failstate that comes from not having "scanned" enough approriate targets. I would say the mission could use more detailed directives as well.

The player is supposed to be performing reconnaissance, which intrinsically involves exploration and discovery.  I have already added several nudges based on feedback, but I'm not going to spell out "go here and scan this".

I can respect that. Maybe there is a lesson in there about me approaching recon missions too rigidly.

But maybe there is room for a "hidden checklist" of task completed, beyond marking each ship as "recorded" - that means basically that you don't give a directive to do a task that has been programmed into the mission, but instead give feedback when one has been completed (similar to Bonus Goals).

Quote
- Shark Bait appears to have a very thin margin on error on Medium, esspecially with regards to
Spoiler:
the SC Achar (if its LRed is not taken out by a lucky beam hit, it can get off up 3 shots before the Trebs hit).

It is meant to be extremely difficult.
Spoiler:
From the mission outline: "This mission is a risky gamble on the GTVA's part, and the final results should leave some Shivans ships still active in the system.  It ought to be a very Pyrrhic victory for the GTVA, including the loss of the destroyer itself.  We've reduced the Shivan threat in the system for the moment, but at a very heavy cost.  This mission will include the Ravana destroyer, multiple smaller vessels, and a nice assortment of enemy wings.  The Ravana should be destroyed in this mission along with the Hatshepsut.  Some Shivan vessels escape, including corvettes able to launch fighters for later missions."  If the player does manage to save the Arnku despite the odds, he is awarded a medal, but he is not expected to.

Spoiler:
My big issue here would be that the Shivan warships pose less of a threat to the Arnku than Aquarius wing does. In most attempts I lost the Arnku, she was lost because the bombers got a good salvo in, even before the Arnku's power fails. By comparison only the Achar and the Kraken appear as supstantial threats while the corvettes and cruisers do much less damage and are more easily prevented from doing damage to the Arnku, not to mention that sometimes you just luck out and one of the BVas shots just takes out a beam turret randomly.
With bomber damage being inherrently being more preventable than warship damage, I though it to be a bit lopsided.

I recognize that some that is simply Retail AI at work - your AI wingmen allowing the Aquarius wing to go into "stop and shoot"-mode while you are off doing something else.

If one were to shift that balance somewhat, maybe by increasing the survivability of the enemy warships (e.g. by increasing the fire wait on Arnku's beams) and/or taking the "lucky shot"-factor out of Arnku's beam fire (e.g. instead of letting it fire its beams dynamically, tailoring the beams hit to be just off to the side of the main cannons of a Shivan ship; Note: to do right might be too much work for too little effort though), I think it would look more like what is intended here.
"As you sought to steal a kingdom for yourself, so must you do again, a thousand times over. For a theft, a true theft, must be practiced to be earned." - The terms of Nyrissa's curse, Pathfinder: Kingmaker

==================

"I am Curiosity, and I've always wondered what would become of you, here at the end of the world." - The Guide/The Curious Other, Othercide

"When you work with water, you have to know and respect it. When you labour to subdue it, you have to understand that one day it may rise up and turn all your labours into nothing. For what is water, which seeks to make all things level, which has no taste or colour of its own, but a liquid form of Nothing?" - Graham Swift, Waterland

"...because they are not Dragons."

 

Offline 0rph3u5

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Re: RELEASE: The Scroll of Atankharzim, Part I
I now completed the campaign on the ISF-path.  I must say that liked it very much, and it will definitively on my "to recommend"-list.

There a few moments at which you can basically hear grinding in the gears with some missions, the finale esspecially. But the presentation and the narrative are top notch and the mission design, while there are obvious seams between missions of older and newer execution, is very good.

Can't wait (rheorically) for the continuation/conclusion.
"As you sought to steal a kingdom for yourself, so must you do again, a thousand times over. For a theft, a true theft, must be practiced to be earned." - The terms of Nyrissa's curse, Pathfinder: Kingmaker

==================

"I am Curiosity, and I've always wondered what would become of you, here at the end of the world." - The Guide/The Curious Other, Othercide

"When you work with water, you have to know and respect it. When you labour to subdue it, you have to understand that one day it may rise up and turn all your labours into nothing. For what is water, which seeks to make all things level, which has no taste or colour of its own, but a liquid form of Nothing?" - Graham Swift, Waterland

"...because they are not Dragons."

  

Offline Goober5000

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Re: RELEASE: The Scroll of Atankharzim, Part I
Thank you very much!

 

Offline Colt

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Re: RELEASE: The Scroll of Atankharzim, Part I
So I'm looking through the music folder for the track that plays in the first half of "The Tablet of Destinies"... and then I came across spinning.ogg  :lol:

Did I find an easter egg, or does this actually play at some point in scrolls?

"you spin me right round, baby right round"

 

Offline Goober5000

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Re: RELEASE: The Scroll of Atankharzim, Part I
:lol: I wondered when someone would find that. :D

It was a developmental easter egg.  When the Narandum reactivates the Knossos in "Crashing the Party", I switched the soundtrack to spinning.ogg.

I took that easter egg out before release because I couldn't think of a good way to have the player trigger it.  I should probably put it back in. :drevil:

 

Offline Colt

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Re: RELEASE: The Scroll of Atankharzim, Part I
:lol: I wondered when someone would find that. :D

It was a developmental easter egg.  When the Narandum reactivates the Knossos in "Crashing the Party", I switched the soundtrack to spinning.ogg.

I took that easter egg out before release because I couldn't think of a good way to have the player trigger it.  I should probably put it back in. :drevil:
Alternatively, it could play whenever the player destroys cargo attached to a Mephisto. Those freighters spin faster than the speed of light!

On a more serious note, that would be pretty funny to put in back in. :yes:

 
Re: RELEASE: The Scroll of Atankharzim, Part I
Well you're free to, um, 'enhance' your own campaign with it too. :p

 

Offline Goober5000

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Re: RELEASE: The Scroll of Atankharzim, Part I
On a more serious note, that would be pretty funny to put in back in. :yes:

I put it back in. :drevil:

There will be a new Scroll release shortly with some minor tweaks and small enhancements, and it will include the Easter Egg.  You'll need to enter a cheat code to activate it. ;)

 

Offline Goober5000

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Re: RELEASE: The Scroll of Atankharzim, Part I
Version 1.5.0 has been released on both Knossos and the FSO Installer.  It contains the following changes:

  • Fixed freighter arrival and deployment in Cloak and Dagger, needed after FSO changes in the warpin code
  • Fixed convoy departure in Irkalla Passes, based on debugging and feedback with CT27
  • Added a cheat code to enable an Easter Egg in Crashing the Party -- and no, it's not the usual www.freespace2.com cheat code
  • Changed "Destroy" to "Intercept" for bomber directives, on suggestion by 0rph3u5
  • Changed the skybox in the Marnakh system, based on a concept by Nyctaeus
  • Fixed both hi-res and low-res medals in the medal box
  • Made debriefing conditions more robust in The High Seas
  • Removed many unused textures, shrinking the download size by quite a bit
  • Model tweaks (POF edits) to the Warlock, Petbe, and Arachnas
  • Added Galemp's new Viminas model
  • Added Nyctaeus's updated Schroedinger textures
  • Other minor tweaks

There's one extremely trivial change I want to highlight.  Way back in 1999, Volition wanted to name a medal "Distinguished Intelligence Cross" but could not because the medal name was one character too long.  Thanks to the $Alt Name feature in FSO, the medal now has its originally intended name. :)

EDIT: And just updated to 1.5.1.  The $Alt Name feature for medals is only available for nightly builds, so I added a version-specific comment so that Scroll remains compatible with FSO 3.7.4.
« Last Edit: November 08, 2019, 03:33:40 pm by Goober5000 »

 

Offline Antares

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Re: RELEASE: The Scroll of Atankharzim, Part I
Knossos is throwing some debug errors on launch with the latest release. It doesn't keep the game from starting or running, but it may bork things up later in the campaign.

~

Could not find index 'LuaSEXPs' in type 'Mission'

------------------------------------------------------------------
ADE Debug:
------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------


------------------------------------------------------------------

stack traceback:
   [C]: ?
   [string "misc-sc-functions-sct.tbm - On Game Init"]:19: in main chunk
------------------------------------------------------------------

1: Userdata [Mission]
2: String [LuaSEXPs]
------------------------------------------------------------------

~

LUA ERROR: [string "misc-sc-functions-sct.tbm - On Game Init"]:19: attempt to index field 'LuaSEXPs' (a nil value)

------------------------------------------------------------------
ADE Debug:
------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------


------------------------------------------------------------------

stack traceback:
   [C]: ?
   [string "misc-sc-functions-sct.tbm - On Game Init"]:19: in main chunk
------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------------------
We have returned to continue our purification of this galaxy. It is again your turn to be crushed beneath the great force that is the Antaran army. All your petty squabbling with the other beings in this galaxy is meaningless. The Antaran fleet will destroy you all, one by one. You may not surrender. You cannot win. Your only option is death.

 

Offline Goober5000

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Re: RELEASE: The Scroll of Atankharzim, Part I
That's actually a file for Part II that I left in the new release, thinking it wouldn't matter.  Unfortunately, LuaSEXPs is a feature that wasn't added until after release 3.8.  So I'll take it out.

Part I should be compatible with FSO 3.7.4.  Part II will require FSO 3.8.2, aka FSO 19.

EDIT: New version of Scroll is now on FSO Installer and Knossos.
« Last Edit: November 24, 2019, 10:21:38 pm by Goober5000 »

 

Offline Antares

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Re: RELEASE: The Scroll of Atankharzim, Part I
Doof.

Kicked to desktop with a debug error upon loading the first Red Alert mission (after destroying the Shivan cargo depot). The game didn't crash, but it was very rude.

~

Error: Argument count is illegal.
In sexpression: (when
(true)
(close-sound-from-file)
(change-soundtrack "7: Revelation")
)
(Error appears to be: close-sound-from-file)
File: missionparse.cpp
Line: 5769
We have returned to continue our purification of this galaxy. It is again your turn to be crushed beneath the great force that is the Antaran army. All your petty squabbling with the other beings in this galaxy is meaningless. The Antaran fleet will destroy you all, one by one. You may not surrender. You cannot win. Your only option is death.

 

Offline Goober5000

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Re: RELEASE: The Scroll of Atankharzim, Part I
Ugh, that's another compatibility bug.  A sexp argument that is optional in 3.8.2 isn't optional in 3.8.  I have uploaded another new version.

 

Offline Antares

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Re: RELEASE: The Scroll of Atankharzim, Part I
A couple of problems in Captain Nemo:

1) Sometimes the mission doesn't progress; the Shivans never arrive, and we all go sailing off into the void. I have no clue what causes this to happen (you don't do anything that early in the mission), but found that I had better luck when turning up time compression.

2)
Spoiler:
The Kraken's fighterbays didn't appear to be taking any damage from my Trebuchets. If this is intentional behavior, then it makes the "remember you can rearm your ship" mission recommendation kind of pointless; why stock up on missiles if they won't work?
We have returned to continue our purification of this galaxy. It is again your turn to be crushed beneath the great force that is the Antaran army. All your petty squabbling with the other beings in this galaxy is meaningless. The Antaran fleet will destroy you all, one by one. You may not surrender. You cannot win. Your only option is death.

 

Offline Goober5000

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Re: RELEASE: The Scroll of Atankharzim, Part I
For 1:

The first problem probably depends on Zeta 1's goal prioritization.  It never happened when I played the mission, but CT27 experienced a bunch of problems in a different mission where the AI simply wouldn't depart when it had an active goal, regardless of that goal's priority.

Also, it turns out that Zeta 1 was able to accept player orders.  If ordered to guard a ship, for example, that would be a higher priority and Zeta 1 would never jump out.  I've edited the mission accordingly.


For 2:

This is unfortunately a more difficult task with the MediaVP model than it was with the retail model.  Instead of attacking the subsystem from any angle, which worked in retail, it is now necessary to attack from the side.  Attacking head-on will impact the edge in the middle and will not cause damage.


I am uploading another version to fix the Zeta 1 departure issue.

 

Offline Antares

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Re: RELEASE: The Scroll of Atankharzim, Part I
Hit a firm brick wall in Thor's Hammer. The first freighter jumps in, drags the first Mjolnir into place (damaging it the whole way) and then stops. It never moves to jump out, and the mission does not progress.
We have returned to continue our purification of this galaxy. It is again your turn to be crushed beneath the great force that is the Antaran army. All your petty squabbling with the other beings in this galaxy is meaningless. The Antaran fleet will destroy you all, one by one. You may not surrender. You cannot win. Your only option is death.

 

Offline Goober5000

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Re: RELEASE: The Scroll of Atankharzim, Part I
I guess I'll need to see a debug log.  That mission works fine for me on the 20191112 nightly build (and it worked on release as well).

Damage shouldn't occur between two docked objects.  It sounds like the Mjolnir got undocked somehow, but there's nothing in the mission that should cause that.

 

Offline Antares

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Re: RELEASE: The Scroll of Atankharzim, Part I
What directory are debug logs saved to?
We have returned to continue our purification of this galaxy. It is again your turn to be crushed beneath the great force that is the Antaran army. All your petty squabbling with the other beings in this galaxy is meaningless. The Antaran fleet will destroy you all, one by one. You may not surrender. You cannot win. Your only option is death.

 

Offline Goober5000

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Re: RELEASE: The Scroll of Atankharzim, Part I
%AppData%\HardLightProductions\FreeSpaceOpen\data.  If you're using Knossos, you can also select "Upload Debug Log" from the list of options.

 

Offline Antares

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Re: RELEASE: The Scroll of Atankharzim, Part I
We have returned to continue our purification of this galaxy. It is again your turn to be crushed beneath the great force that is the Antaran army. All your petty squabbling with the other beings in this galaxy is meaningless. The Antaran fleet will destroy you all, one by one. You may not surrender. You cannot win. Your only option is death.