Author Topic: [Release] Walking On Ashes (mini-campaign)  (Read 17744 times)

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Offline 0rph3u5

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[Release] Walking On Ashes (mini-campaign)
Alright, alright, alright. *slaps hands togehter* It's been a while  :D





Having plundered an ancient battlefield in the Nebula, the GVD Meretseger races to back to the safety of the allied lines. However the with the first ships of the Sathanas Armada ahead of them and the Ravana-class SD Malevolence behind them, the pilots and crew of the Meretseger will have to do their best. For the information they gathered is something the Shivans are quite unwilling to surrender...


Walking on Ashes started out as the three-mission-finale to the Jarin/Jaarin-storyline for the original The Lost Generation; Much has happened in terms of development history, most notable the split of The Lost Generation into two campaigns, Ashcorft and Jaarin, and most recently the complete re-working of the Jaarin-storyline.


Said re-working means that I can no longer re-use these missions but that is no reason to let them go to waste. And here they are re-titled and renovated.
(As part of the renovation the missions received new dialogue which was written as an adaptation of the characters from the new The Lost Generation - Jaarin, but should not be taken as in-continuity or final.)


A word of warning, before you play:
These mission are a marathon with only a single option in the beginning to pick your loadout. They are made to be a challenge -  after all, in the final missions of a campaign you should not expect any mercy. Take advantage of the option to go back a mission or even to restart the campaign fully if think that you need to improve the outcome from mission to mission.


Side Bar with regards to Accessibility:
The mod enforces my preference for smaller HUD elements. If you require the larger HUD elements for any reason, please make it known to me and I will strive to provide a patch as quickly as possible.

DOWNLOADS:

Knossos:


Manual Installation:
The manual installation package does not provide a FS_Open build version 3.8.1 or newer, which is required for some functions to work (error-free). During the final tests, the Nightly released on January 2nd was used and is therefor recommened (Link). Additionally, you will have check the list of dependencies in the mod.ini ("secondrylist =") to match your installation.
via ModDB



Credits:
- Mission Design & Story: Jan ''0rph3u5'' Dombert
- Story Editor: Iain ''Nomad'' Baker
- Scripts: ''Axem''
- "FuryAI": "Sushi"
- GVF Heset: "Aldo", with textures by "FreeSpaceKing"
- GVD Tyhon (HTL)/GVD Meretseger: "RagingLoli", with textures by "Galemp"
- GTF Myrmidon (MediaVPs)/GVF Myrmidon: unknown (Sorry!)
- SF Incubus/SF Tarasque: "Bobboau" and "Rampage"
- Fresspace 2: :v:

Special thanks to "Trashman" (who made the Typhon-model that was the first version of the Meretseger) and "Spoon" (for some of the motivation in the week up to release). And of course to all you wonderful people who run and frequent HLP!

ps. Apologies to Iain has I had to sneak a few additional lines into the missions between your last submission of feedback and the release.



Disclaimer: The following screenshots were made during early testing and may represent an unrealistic state of progression.







Hidden Text: Tipps for improving your odds: • Show
- The GVF Heset is capable of directional, i.e. up-down-left-right, thrust of up to 7 m/s (up-down) and 12 m/s (left-right) . That doesn't sound like much but is more effective the further away you are from a target. At close quarters it can also slightly shift the centre of turn, giving you the effect of a wider or tighter turn.

- The Heset's first primary bank is suspiciously optimized for a Maxim.

- All enemy bombers will be grouped under F6, all enemy fighters under F7. Use this to improve your awareness of the battlefield when needed.

- The Meretseger is more capable than your average Typhon, and can project quite a lot of Flak around its command tower. This a good spot to re-arm.

- Support Ships launch from the Meretseger but can depart via subspace at any time. It might be favourable to just order a Support to depart and then call in a new one to avoid long waits.

Hidden Text: Known Issues: • Show
- The Meretseger is able to fire some turrets with no regard to its own model; this slightly speeds up the events of Mission 2 and allows for a slightly more favourable outcome. Considering the overall difficulty, I decided to leave it for the time being.

- The data for the ships in Rho, Tau & Sigma wing doesn't correctly carry over into Mission 3. They will either not appear or launch from the Meretseger at 100%. Reason: Red Alert Carry Status does not apply to the second wave of a wing.

- The Meretseger's glow map looks off in places. It will be addressed at the same time as the issue above.

- Likewise, the shine map for the GVF Myrmidon is not up to standard.

- The floating debris of the Knossos Portal in Mission 1 are more plentiful than they need be.

- All Stilletto IIs fired by Omicron wing travel at 1500+ m/s after launch. Reason unknown.

Sorry for all those, but if you do all your testing yourself, you have to cut some corners. :sigh:

Hidden Text: Old Continuity Fragments • Show
- The SD/SSD Aamon is the same that appears in the prologue/demo to the now cancelled Workings of the Warp (Wiki-page); it is later destroyed in Capella after its shields were disabled using a Shivan device that manipulated local subspace.

- "The Codex" was meant to be part of the programming required to make the ETAK technology function as intended. Its recovery was part of an effort by the GTVA to build its own version of the ETAK, prior to the acquisition of the original from the Iceni.

- In Workings of the Warp it was going to be mentioned that the misinformation that lead to the GTVA expedition "awakening" the Aamon was actually a decoy made by a defector who helped Bosch steal part of the GTVA's original research materials on the Shivans. The series of events would not have been planned to happen when the files were stolen, what happed was the result of that GTVA researchers failing to identify the forgeries that were left in place of the original material as such.

- The purpose of the "Inner Sanctum" aboard the Aamon would have been revealed. It would have been mentioned that like on the Aamon, the Sanctum aboard the original Lucifer it would have been "unoccupied for too long" and that it is a flawed design from a time "when to the Shivans the galaxy was a larger place". (Through all its development, working through what the idea of original Intent/purpose of a tool/technology meant was one of the closest thing Workings of the Warp had to a thematic underpinning.)

- Commodore/Admiral Phuun would have returned in Workings of the Warp as commander of the Vasudan contingent and possible antagonist during the finale of the story. The events of the original The Lost Generation would have been the key to understanding her position and possibly avoid conflict.

- The Meretseger's pilots would returned in Workings of the Warp as wingmen and possible enemy ace pilots in the finale of the story.

- Vice Admiral/Admiral Richter would have returned in Workings of the Warp as commander of a joint SOC-affiliated detachment, he would have been an antagonist in all but one version the story's finale. The GTCv Noir would still have been his flagship.



Code: [Select]
$Created: 02/20/09 at 15:14:46
$Modified: 01/04/19 at 14:31:34

... missed the ten year mark by 44 days appearenlty. Where did the time go...
« Last Edit: April 06, 2019, 03:52:47 am by 0rph3u5 »
"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 HLD_Prophecy

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Re: [Release] Walking On Ashes (mini-campaign)
Cool nice work! I want to play this if I can. I especially like the second to last screenshot, it gets the mood going. I always felt something ominous, brooding, deep and dark about the Demon - the way it sort of hangs like a stony presence and floats slowly through space. Highlighted by the sun it's even more striking.  :D

 

Offline Colonol Dekker

  • HLP is my mistress
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Re: [Release] Walking On Ashes (mini-campaign)
Congrats on the release.   It reads like a golden age (derelict etc) campaign :nod:.   I look forward to getting a chance to play.  :yes:
Campaigns I've added my distinctiveness to-
- Blue Planet: Battle Captains
-Battle of Neptune
-Between the Ashes 2
-Blue planet: Age of Aquarius
-FOTG?
-Inferno R1
-Ribos: The aftermath / -Retreat from Deneb
-Sol: A History
-TBP EACW teaser
-Earth Brakiri war
-TBP Fortune Hunters (I think?)
-TBP Relic
-Trancsend (Possibly?)
-Uncharted Territory
-Vassagos Dirge
-War Machine
(Others lost to the mists of time and no discernible audit trail)

Your friendly Orestes tactical controller.

Secret bomb God.
That one time I got permabanned and got to read who was being bitxhy about me :p....
GO GO DEKKER RANGERSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
President of the Scooby Doo Model Appreciation Society
The only good Zod is a dead Zod
NEWGROUNDS COMEDY GOLD, UPDATED DAILY
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Offline CT27

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Re: [Release] Walking On Ashes (mini-campaign)
I tried to activate it and got this error:

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

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


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

stack traceback:
   [C]: ?
   [string "markbox-sct.tbm - On Game Init"]:283: in main chunk
------------------------------------------------------------------

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

 

Offline 0rph3u5

  • 211
  • Oceans rise. Empires fall.
Re: [Release] Walking On Ashes (mini-campaign)
I tried to activate it and got this error*snip*

Knossos or Manual?

If Knossos please check which build you are launching (under FSO Setting, either via the Mod itself or your global settings), this error is associated with Axem's Mark Box-Script, which requires a 3.8.1 build to run.

If Manual, same applies - there is a link for build I used in testing this week.
"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 AdDur

  • 25
Re: [Release] Walking On Ashes (mini-campaign)
Simple, yet demanding and fun to play campaign. There are some... erratic ship movements, but missions are polished. Repelling attacks, one after another reminded me a bit one of the last missions of "Shrouding the Light" - but here with ship moving, not just waiting for imminent execution. 

 

Offline 0rph3u5

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  • Oceans rise. Empires fall.
Re: [Release] Walking On Ashes (mini-campaign)
Thanks for the positive reveiw.

There are some... erratic ship movements,

Do you mind to explain? - The implimentation of FuryAI might have caused a few scenarios that I never saw during testing or existed before (e.g. to account for the smarter dogfighting behavior of Omicron and Rho wing, they went from 4 to 2 bombers each; subsequently all enemy capital ships survive a little bit longer)
"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 AdDur

  • 25
Re: [Release] Walking On Ashes (mini-campaign)
Well, vasudan destroyer changes its direction few times during second mission. Maybe (and probably) it has a purpose, but looks a bit funny to me (maybe just my twisted mind finds it funny)

And also it is possible to destroy Ravanas main beams in first missions - damage made to the hull stays, but beams regenerate.

 

Offline 0rph3u5

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  • Oceans rise. Empires fall.
Re: [Release] Walking On Ashes (mini-campaign)
Well, vasudan destroyer changes its direction few times during second mission. Maybe (and probably) it has a purpose, but looks a bit funny to me (maybe just my twisted mind finds it funny)

Well, all ships run a minimalistic number of waypoints, so the turns aren't always as smooth and gradual as I would make them today.

Hidden Text: some detailed explaination • Show
Updating that in the rennovation would have been quite difficult because while the mission spaces would have stayed the same (e.g. in Mission 2 its a cylinder of roughly (8,0002*Pi*20,000) m3 paced along a line closest to both the Meretseger's and Malevolence' waypoints) it would changed the interaction spaces between ships (e.g. when ships are in beam range of each other).

I normally determine those by trial and error when the there are still every few objects and then write them down later to determine stuff like fighter spawn points or the radius of the "Near Ship" arrival cue; In the ten years that information got lost (and would have been insufficent anyway because ten years ago), and recreating it would have meant gutting the mission and basically start over from scratch.

The course corrections that are in the mission are usually to adjust for the angle of some beam cannon or the subspace exit deceleration.

And also it is possible to destroy Ravanas main beams in first missions - damage made to the hull stays, but beams regenerate.

That's an oversight. The damage to the hull was original mean to transfer as part of a campaign-wide continuity feature - which I appearently did not sufficently disable. Noted for the patch to solve that (however don't expect that I am going to just give an easy mode there - you might just trade the 2 LReds for more Nephilims - and FuryAI Nephilims are "not fun at all")
"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 AdDur

  • 25
Re: [Release] Walking On Ashes (mini-campaign)
Well, it is really minor thing, that doesn't affects gameplay...

It is quite a difficult campaign, but in an entertaining and fair way, so few more bombers... it would just make it more exciting!

 

Offline Spoon

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Re: [Release] Walking On Ashes (mini-campaign)
I will play this.
0rph3u5, shoot me a pm if I haven't posted anything about this in like a week from now. Because that just means I forgot and that I need a reminder :P
Urutorahappī!!

[02:42] <@Axem> spoon somethings wrong
[02:42] <@Axem> critically wrong
[02:42] <@Axem> im happy with these missions now
[02:44] <@Axem> well
[02:44] <@Axem> with 2 of them

 

Offline Spoon

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Re: [Release] Walking On Ashes (mini-campaign)
Well, I did play. It's kind of hard for me to play other campaigns and mods without developer goggles on, I'll always be bothered by little things. (like, why is the player throttle set to zero at mission start)
That being said, take my opinion with a bit of salt, I probably don't represent the average player in any shape or form anymore.

I couldn't make it past mission 2, and after 5 tries I gave up because I just wasn't having that much fun. The first mission is resoundingly average, if not a bit boring and can be fairly easily beaten by just siccing your wingmates onto everything. I then ran into a bunch of shivan AA beams, took a bunch of hull damage and that was the end of that.
But then the mission red-alerts into kind of a cluster **** of the shivans throwing all the things at you at once, and the player is expected to read messages during battle, disarm all the beam cannons, fight off all the fighters and bombers and not die to the attrition of AA beams (which are imo the worse part of FS2; unavoidable random shots that will do direct hull damage) with no way to repair. One time I got pretty close to getting through, but as the Ravana was just warping out, it beamed the Typhon with the funny vasudan name and the mission was a failure. (With the Flee! directive, I expected there would be a branch for failure, but that turned out to be a false hope)

The campaign is setup pretty much specifically for trebs and maxims which are required to do all the beam disarming at once, meaning all other loadout options are basically traps.
Now I (just now) see that you warned about this in the release post: "These mission are a marathon with only a single option in the beginning to pick your loadout. They are made to be a challenge -  after all, in the final missions of a campaign you should not expect any mercy. Take advantage of the option to go back a mission or even to restart the campaign fully if think that you need to improve the outcome from mission to mission."

But this is also not actually communicated to you in the briefing itself all that well and it basically just boils down to lobbing trebs at far away threats because everything else is actively discouraging you to take part in close range action. But at the same time, all the shivan cruisers warp in basically immediately in beam range, so the attrition to your escort target is also pretty much unavoidable.

(Not sure why you like the tiny hud, it just makes the player have to dash their eyes all over the screen to find information in an already cluttered information landscape of stuff happening.)

Anyway, apologies if this may seem a bit overly harsh (but I guess that's just how I roll with these kind of posts), I do think there's potential in this campaign, but it needs a sharper focus for the player in terms of objectives and more leeway in terms of repair (or just make AA beams not shield pierce, gah) so you don't get stuck in unwinnable situations so easily without needing to restart the whole campaign from the start.
Restarting wouldn't be so bad if the first mission had a bunch of interesting options available for the player, but since it's basically just intercepting a couple of lone wings one at the time, it doesn't make for a terribly fun experiencing having to replay it.

(p.s. it's spelled Dreadnought, not Dreadnaught)
Urutorahappī!!

[02:42] <@Axem> spoon somethings wrong
[02:42] <@Axem> critically wrong
[02:42] <@Axem> im happy with these missions now
[02:44] <@Axem> well
[02:44] <@Axem> with 2 of them

 

Offline 0rph3u5

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  • Oceans rise. Empires fall.
Re: [Release] Walking On Ashes (mini-campaign)
I didn't expect to be coddled. I mean this release is here to knock on some of the stuff that has grandfathered itself in ... and needs to get out of my system by the time I am done with all three The Lost Generation-campaigns (Of Shivans and Men will survive it, but what comes next ... surely not)

The campaign is setup pretty much specifically for trebs and maxims which are required to do all the beam disarming at once, meaning all other loadout options are basically traps.

You are right when it comes to the stricly dominant (Maxim+Tebuchet) and dominant (Trebuchet) loadouts. Maybe I can mitigate some of it when I fix the Stilletto II changes and maybe take another look at the changes to the Infyrno that are already in TLG, and by extension Walking on Ashes (tl;dr: the Infyrno got more range to take the risk out of using it, but that also upped the skill required for using it, in terms the lead actually required and the fact there is no way to actually judge its blast from distance).

But then the mission red-alerts into kind of a cluster **** of the shivans throwing all the things at you at once

I am overly fond of letting you see what is coming... I just really like the visual of a threat literally growing closer.
The ambush is way to break away from that, and I am not going to apologize for it* - and an ambush is supposed to be disorienting and putting you on the backfoot.
Spoiler:
I though by minimizing the impact of the Rakshasa (it is almost immedieatly out of position, safe for the AAA beam) and guiding the view point back towards with the Ravana with the Molochs would be working.

*It has already been pointed out to me, that I seem to be unwilling to leave obvious openings when designing enemy deployments. And that I over-compensate when I do.

Also, maybe I just can't unsee it:
Spoiler:
Even with every cruiser arriving with escort fighters, there is a wave pattern to the ambush and rest of the battle: Cains and their fighters, Molochs and their fighters, first bombers arrive in range about the same time as the Molochs, then the Ravana, then all the other bombers

[...] with no way to repair [...] and more leeway in terms of repair

I don't think that in-mission repairs are a very appropriate design choice for something so closely married to Freespace 2. But that might be my own biases speaking the loudest.

I will look into applying the same remedy I have in other TLG-campaigns, because I am no longer using the in-engine Red Alert (Old grudges live the longest) and instead port over loadout choices via variables (lots of busy work and one typo can spell doom); basically it would mean the option to "buy" a hull and ammo boost upon a mission restart.
However working out the mechanics for that are on the backlog ATM (keyworded as quality of life), so don't expect me do an update to that effect quickly.

ps. The last time I did this strict "between mission continuity" for a mothership's hull was in Drums of War for The Babylon Project and back then I added an adjustment for balance at each mission start; it was needed because the Centauri Primus and Vorchan (main enemy capital ships) have blob turrets as anti-capital weapons, and interceptable primaries were not thing yet. In a Freespace 2 envoirment, where capital ship attack each other mostly by beams and taking down beam turrets is a known quanity, I did not think such would appropriate.

But this is also not actually communicated to you in the briefing itself

Noted. I will address this in an update.

Typhon with the funny vasudan name

Meretseger on Wikiepdia

The name is grandfathered in now (so is the ironic use), but I got the memo to cut down the number of syllables in a critical ship's name, esspecially if it is not a common thing.




LATE EDIT:

On the subject of the HUD, I feel like I have to say a few words since the mod enforces it:

I admit that there are additions to the HUD I would like to impliment, and just haven't checked if they are possible or are already out there. I have an original project in the pipeline that would require a large scale change to the HUD, simply as a requirement of the setting. As per my injury over the Holidays I was not able to do as much of the research and technical foundational work I was hoping to (damage to the shoulder puts strain on the neck muscluature etc etc), so any work that would have sprung from that which could have benefitted this release didn't happen.

As for the things that I would like to add and that would be a) a ammunition indicator for secondaries at the inside of the "ring" (for secondaries only; I will hold frim on that "no limited ammo primaries"-policy for everything but OSaM), b) an indicator for active hardpoints (which I know exist) with symbolic represenations for the weapon type, sidearm/anti-shield/anti-hull/anti-system, (which I don't know exits, and it would be pointless without), and c) a RTS/MOBA-style health bar, which marries a percentile display with segments for absolute ammounts (I find a pure percentage bar like in WoD insufficent).

That being said, I like the individual HUD elements smaller and pulled to the perifiery because my tastes in games generally gravitate towards the isometric perspective, where UI design generally moves elements to the perifery. I also have to admit that I seem to have a better than average short term memory, and so tend to keep way more information in my head during play than other people. (which also why mission specific HUD elements like WoD or BP:WiH have greater than average chance of confusing me)
« Last Edit: January 14, 2019, 03:45:37 am by 0rph3u5 »
"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 CT27

  • 211
Re: [Release] Walking On Ashes (mini-campaign)
I tried to activate it and got this error*snip*

Knossos or Manual?

If Knossos please check which build you are launching (under FSO Setting, either via the Mod itself or your global settings), this error is associated with Axem's Mark Box-Script, which requires a 3.8.1 build to run.

If Manual, same applies - there is a link for build I used in testing this week.


I tried it again on manual with the January 9, 2019 nightly and I was able to start the campaign but there were a number of graphics errors.  There were no grid lines in mission briefings and in the actual mission there were no actual ships, only a few glowing dots that formed an outline of ships.

Hopefully when I get a better computer with a better graphics card later this year it will fix the problem.

 

Offline 0rph3u5

  • 211
  • Oceans rise. Empires fall.
Re: [Release] Walking On Ashes (mini-campaign)
I tried it again on manual with the January 9, 2019 nightly and I was able to start the campaign but there were a number of graphics errors.  There were no grid lines in mission briefings and in the actual mission there were no actual ships, only a few glowing dots that formed an outline of ships.

Sorry for the long delay ... I am currently occupied with important RL stuff...

Anyway, please provide a fs2_open.log.

Nothing of what you have described seems to be my fault, but with a fs2_open.log there is better chance of finding out what is happening.
"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 CT27

  • 211
Re: [Release] Walking On Ashes (mini-campaign)
I tried it again on manual with the January 9, 2019 nightly and I was able to start the campaign but there were a number of graphics errors.  There were no grid lines in mission briefings and in the actual mission there were no actual ships, only a few glowing dots that formed an outline of ships.

Sorry for the long delay ... I am currently occupied with important RL stuff...

Anyway, please provide a fs2_open.log.

Nothing of what you have described seems to be my fault, but with a fs2_open.log there is better chance of finding out what is happening.

I think I'm going to have to wait a few months to try this again.  The problems I stated are present on a number of campaigns I try when using anything after the October 31, 2017 nightly.  I've been told that these can happen with those who have older AMD cards like I do on my current computer.  Hopefully the new computer I get later this year will fix things (I'm deciding on prebuilt builds...the computer I get will likely have one of the 1070/2060/2070).

 

Offline 0rph3u5

  • 211
  • Oceans rise. Empires fall.
Re: [Release] Walking On Ashes (mini-campaign)
O.K.

If the problem persist, please don't hestitate to give me another notice.



Meanwhile, I was thinking of drawing up a chart of all failstate thats that have been "achieved" to better draw up methods to improve the experience on retrys. While I will stay commited to the missions as they are now, I reckognize that improving the experience for some players is warranted.

So, if anyone, who played, is willing to share a bit on how they failed the second Mission it would be greatly appricated.


ps. Don't expect a speedy update however.
« Last Edit: March 15, 2019, 09:10:14 am by 0rph3u5 »
"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 AdDur

  • 25
Re: [Release] Walking On Ashes (mini-campaign)
I do not remeber all my failed attemps to finish mission... But surely one of the easiest ways is to allow Ravana to fire more than one salvo.

 

Offline 0rph3u5

  • 211
  • Oceans rise. Empires fall.
Re: [Release] Walking On Ashes (mini-campaign)
Walking on Ashes 1.0.4 Patch Notes

1. Patch deployment date: April 5th

2. Changes to ships (from 1.0.3):


All allied bombers have recieved the "Reactive" armor-type. They will now take 25% less damage from Flak.
Reason: This change was made to up the surival rate of both allied bomber wings when attacking the Molochs in Mission 2. Applying this as a global rule to all bombers is not applicable to Walking on Ashes as it would be an cruel burden to the player.

Added the SF Incubus as SF Tarasque to the mod. The Tarasque is capable of firing long range, low-yield anti-capital missiles.

The GVF Seth can no longer carry the Stiletto II or Trebuchet in the first missile bank (Note: That's the smaller missile bank). It also losses the ability to carry the Infyrno.
Reason: This is to bring it in line with other ships that have different missile bank sizes. The loss of the option to equip the Infyrno is to bring it in line with the Horus.

The GVF Horus can now carry the Stiletto II in the first missile bank (Note: Both banks are of equal size).
Reason: All fighters that can carry the Trebuchet now have the option to carry the Stiletto II as well (this does not apply to the Heset).

The GVF Toth can now carry the Infyrno.
Reason: In order to make it a distinct choice it has become the only Great War-era fighter with the ability to carry the Infyrno. It's still the Toth, so not recommended under any circumstances.

The GVF Myrmidon can now carry Helios bombs in its third missile bank (Note: That's the largest missile bank).
Reason: This is allows you to use the Myrmidon as additional anti-capital ship options.

The GVF Serapis can now carry the Trebuchet, the Stiletto II and the Infyrno in its first missile bank (Note: That's the larger missile bank).
Reason: This is to make the Serapis more viable in comparison with the Heset.

The GVF Tauret can no longer carry the Trebuchet, the Stiletto II and the Infyrno in its second missile bank (Note: Both banks are of equal size).
Reason: So the Tauret doesn't become an overpowering option due to its higher secondary capacity.

3a. Changes to weapons (from 1.0.3):

All AAA-beams have recieved the following changes:
a) They no longer pierce shields.
b) Their damage against shields has been reduced to 70 percent of the original ammount.
c) They will prioritize bombers over all targets.
Reason: You have to thank Spoon for this one. This should improve player surivability against enemy AAA-beams, esspecially the ones on the Ravana, which tend to be a late mission buzz-kill in Mission 2.

3b. Changes to weapons (from retail):
Note: These changes are already part of previous versions, however they used to be invisible as neither weapon was avalible to the player.

The Infyrno has recieved the following changes:
a) Missile Velocity has been increased to 300 m/s (up from 120).
b) Missile Lifetime has been decreased to 6 s (down from 7).
Reason: This increases the range of the Infyno to more than double it retail value. This makes the missile much safer to use, as you no longer risk being caught in the submunitions. As a trade-off the missile is now more difficult to use.

The Stiletto II has recieved the following changes:
a) The Missile now is capable of homing on targets 100° from its centre line (up from 40°).
b) The Missile now flys without actively tracking its target for first half of its life time. During the second half it will home in on its target, which includes doing an up to 100° trajectory adjustment.
c) Missile maximum velocity has been increased to 440 m/s, this is the velocity during the time missile homes in on its target. During the inital non-homing period it will fly at 110 m/s.
d) Missile Lifetime has been decreased to 15 s (down from 25).
Reason: This is to make the missile harder to intercept for the AI, as well as allow the missile to be used for skilled shots against turrets.

4. Loadout changes:

Added GVF Tauret and the GVF Seth to the avalible fighters list (3 each).

Added the Stiletto II, the Infyrno and the Helios to the list of avalible secondary weapons (numbers : 39x Stiletto II, 18x Infyrno and 6x Helios).

You will now be able to load-out Phi wing in addition to Mu and Nu wing (The default of Phi wing is 3 Serapis with a Prometheus S/Mekhu HL-7//Tornado/Harpoon loadout).

5. Mission changes:

All missions:
Added options to mitigate the difficulty during repeated retrys: these will be avalible at the start of Mission 2 and 3 via the reinforcement-section of the Comm-menu after the mission has been failed at least twice (including player deaths).
- Repair the Meretseger for half of the missing hull percentage; Mission specific caps apply (Mission 2: 85 percent; Mission 3: 50 percent). [called "M Repair"]
- Add a 25 percent armor boost against either beams or bombs to the Meretseger. [called "M Beam Armor" and "M Bomb Armor" respecitively]
- Repair your own figher for half of the missing hull percentage. [called "Self Repair"]
- Repair all squadmates for half of the missing hull percentage. [called "Squad Repair"]
Note, these options only apply to the mission they have been called in for.

Mission 1:
a) The Briefing will now have an additional stage to communicate clearly that you will have no options to change your load-outs or perform hull repairs during the normal course of the missions.
b) The text in the 7th stage of the Briefing has been updated. It now gives you a clue for selecting your loadouts.
c) Added events for a scenario in which the Ravana's beam cannons are destroyed.
d) Removed the option to disable the beam cannons on the Phenex by destroying its "Reactor"-subsystem. (A consequence from the markbox-script.)

Mission 2:
a) Added provisions for a scenario that the Ravana's beam cannons have been destroyed in Mission 1. It's not going to be pretty.
b) Added provisions for a scenario that the Ravana's beam cannons are destroyed before the Malevolence closes to firing range.
(Yup, no more subsystem protection for the enemy destroyer from the time it arrives.)
c) Removed the option to disable the beam cannons on both Molochs and the Rakshasa by destroying their "Reactor"-subsystems. (A consequence from the markbox-script.)

6a. Roadmap for 1.0.5:

1. Investigate why the damage to the Ravana's main beam canons doesn't carry over from Mission 1 to Mission 2. The related events in Mission 2 have been disabled.
2. Review balance changes.

6b. Roadmap for 1.1.0:

1. Apply a more elegant solution to activate the difficulty mitigation options.
2. Make message-box-script and my HUD config into seperate package, so you choose on your end.

EDIT: 7. Known Issues

- You are able to call in both the Bomb and Beam Armor for a split second, the game will however only apply the first one you called. The first part is unintentional, the second part is not.
- Using the "M Repair"-option might result in some of the messages, that are meant to alert you to Hull value of the Meretseger dropping, not playing.
« Last Edit: April 10, 2019, 01:32:24 pm by 0rph3u5 »
"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

  • 211
  • Oceans rise. Empires fall.
Re: [Release] Walking On Ashes (mini-campaign)
Patch 1.0.4 is now out.



You can read the full patch notes in my previous post (Updated today).



There has been major hick-up with the patch. For some, not yet explained reason the new variables used to make damage to the Malevolence's LRed and SRed turrets persistent, do not carry their data over from Mission 1 to Mission 2.
I've disabled all the related content for the time being and will investigate.

This should not affect the measures to help with the campaign's difficulty, which are the reason to deploy this patch.


... now if you excuse me, I have to work on something else ...
« Last Edit: April 05, 2019, 06:22:16 pm by 0rph3u5 »
"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."