[darkmaster]

UPDATED 18/04/2014

Exclusive DEMO : 4 missions and 2 cutscenes. Compatible with lastest recommended build (3.7.0) and latest Zathras (2.8)

Download link : https://www.mediafire.com/?btoqam08ooe78bm

Difficulty level : From Novice to Intermediate
Recommended FS2 Difficulty Settings : Easy

How to install :

Code: [Select]

1> Install TBP 3.4 (OUTSIDE of C:\Program Files - choose another folder to install) and Zathras by following Vidmaster's instructions : [url]http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=51780.0[/url]

2> Download the DEMO and put it into your TBP folder

3> Launch the wxLauncher, choose FS2 Open 3.7.0 as your exe, and Zathras as your mod. Then go to the Advanced Settings tab and check "Enable 3D Shockwave"

4> Click on "Play" :D

What has been changed :

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1> Fix a bug that prevent messages from showing up in the last cutscene
2> Fix all balancing issues (the campaign is much more easier now)
3> Fix some minor bugs and spelling mistakes.

How to clear secret bonus goals and unlock secret story line :
A bonus walkthrough is available, I recommend you play the campaign one time before going for the bonus.

Spoiler:

Mission 2 : The Enlightenment : When something sends you an EMP burst quickly turn your radar range to infinity and look for a ship marked as "unknown" in the radar (you won't be able to select it by pressing the "u" button). Target this ship and keep it targeted for 7s until it sends you another EMP burst. You have cleared the first bonus.
Mission 4 : Unnatural Situation : If you had cleared the bonus in mission 2 then at the end of this mission the unknown ship will reappear and send you another EMP burst. Quickly target it and keep it targeted until you got another EMP hit ^^. If so you have cleared all the bonus in this DEMO.

Enjoy the additional cutscene at the end of "Unnatural Situation part 2".

[Vidmaster]

Please note that at the time of this post, I have not played anything yet. (I am currently at work and playing TBP would suck here ).

I had concepts for a second DarkChildren from a Vorlon Fighter's point of view long ago, complete with special abilities like the Rage Mode and regenerating health but never started fredding. And probably won't ever do it.
Despite "your Vorlon" differing from "my Vorlon", you may use whatever stuff you like from Dark Children.
Rewrite the mission in question, although it wasn't all that good (since I just wanted to put an end to development and move on to Fortune Hunters 2260 at this point).

About that

Spoiler:

ending of the campaign, the battle at Coriana 6 and especially the Vorlon Planet Killer killing planet effect.

I recommend either dropping the idea and doing something else or waiting until Fortune Hunters 2261 is released. Let's just say this campaigns features great things never seen before and I would like to keep these things (and how they work) a secret until I release it to the public.

FUBAR has been insanely helpful during the creation process  , I don't know how many times I crashed my head into some code-bug or logical wall.

[darkmaster]

Yeah so choosing the first ending may be a logical choice ^^, until FH2261 is released.

[darkmaster]

Bonus walkthrough :
I recommend you play the game one time before going for the bonus.

Spoiler:

Mission 2 : The Enlightenment : When something sends you an EMP burst quickly turn your radar range to infinity and look for a ship marked as "unknown" in the radar (you won't be able to select it by pressing the "u" button). Target this ship and keep it targeted for 7s until it sends you another EMP burst. You have cleared the first bonus.
Mission 4 : Unnatural Situation : If you had cleared the bonus in mission 2 then at the end of this mission the unknown ship will reappear and send you another EMP burst. Quickly target it and keep it targeted until you got another EMP hit ^^. If so you have cleared all the bonus in this DEMO.

Enjoy the additional cutscene at the end of "Unnatural Situation part 2".

[Tinman]

for the Mac people - I compiled an TBP Inferno build for MacOS X...

d/l link is in my sig, extract it into "The Babylon Project" folder and you're ready to go 

(I had no time to test it for a long time, so no guarantee there are no issues) 

[darkmaster]

So, did anyone play it ? Please give me your opinion (especially on possible bugs). I'm planning for the next part with some special abilities enabled (health regeneration...). The primary enemy in the next part will be Drahks and Shadows ^^.

[Nordwin]

Well, I played it with me new and shiny INF-Build on Linux.. and I really liked it... although I am pretty shure that you misquote someone in one of the missions:

Spoiler:

The Vorlon proverb is "Truth is a three edged sword" and not "Knowledge is a three edged sword"

apart from that, I really enjoyed it.. and I am waiting for more ;-)

[carbine7]

Once again, very good darkmaster! So this has been what you've been spending you're time on. MORE! Or Else 

[Angelus]

So, did anyone play it ? Please give me your opinion (especially on possible bugs). I'm planning for the next part with some special abilities enabled (health regeneration...). The primary enemy in the next part will be Drahks and Shadows ^^.

Yeah, i played and enjoyed it, although those enemys in the last mission are tough, either that or i forgot how to fly...


During playing i noticed some minor stuff, like the nebula overlapping a planet.
Didn't check the missions in FRED yet, i'm currently recording the videos for my mod ( which is a REAL pain in the a** ).
I check them later and post a report and a couple of screenshots of things i found odd ( no worries, nothing really bad ). 

[darkmaster]

So, did anyone play it ? Please give me your opinion (especially on possible bugs). I'm planning for the next part with some special abilities enabled (health regeneration...). The primary enemy in the next part will be Drahks and Shadows ^^.

Yeah, i played and enjoyed it, although those enemys in the last mission are tough, either that or i forgot how to fly...


During playing i noticed some minor stuff, like the nebula overlapping a planet.
Didn't check the missions in FRED yet, i'm currently recording the videos for my mod ( which is a REAL pain in the a** ).
I check them later and post a report and a couple of screenshots of things i found odd ( no worries, nothing really bad ). 

Strange, I thought the last mission was easier than the previous one (if you play on very easy you can win without even moving your fighter, I played it on medium and still won easily). The previous one was toucher since I had no way to win on medium .

Waiting for your report ^^.

[VERTi60]

I have issues with third mission. I get stuck right after the warp. Additionaly all other wingmen are stuck and the greater guardians gets destroyed and mission will fail each time. 

[darkmaster]

I have issues with third mission. I get stuck right after the warp. Additionaly all other wingmen are stuck and the greater guardians gets destroyed and mission will fail each time. 

You meaned the Dilgar mission or the Earth mission ? And what did you mean by "stuck" (well you were in open space so it's a bit funny to get "stuck" ) ? Don't take it serious just a joke.
For your problem, well I think you should try to create a new pilot and use him to play. I once got a similar problem with the first mission ( you started without your fighter and all other wingmen were showed as dead, right ?). If so just play it using another pilot (I really don't know why, sorry).

[Peter12345]

That was a pretty interesting campaign.  The Dilgar mission was very tough:

Spoiler:

I'm surprised the Vorlons would let Kosh go into an unknown situation without sending a greater guardian to defend him.

I completed the bonus objectives and didn't really understand what

Spoiler:

That small transport was all about.  I'm assuming it was telepaths or shadow minions.  After I finished the second bonus I followed the transport and tried to fry it with my beam.  Also, all I saw in the final cutscene was the transport watching them in hyperspace then flying off.

 
I might play through the campaign again to see what the alternate ending would be without completing the bonus objectives.

[darkmaster]

That was a pretty interesting campaign.  The Dilgar mission was very tough:

Spoiler:

I'm surprised the Vorlons would let Kosh go into an unknown situation without sending a greater guardian to defend him.

Thanks for your comment.

Spoiler:

Kosh was the commander of this battle, so he was free to do anything he liked and the Vorlon fleet must obey him. Additionally he had this situation totally under control, the Dilgar weapon could not penetrate the Vorlon shield and his ship was very very "safe" ^^.

For the transport ship you will get more revelance when the final release comes out.

[Angelus]

I checked the Mission's in FRED, to see if some of the things i found are bugs.
I didn't check all the events, though.

what i found is actually minor stuff, so consider this report as "nitpicking"
I also didn't check the first 3 missions, since they are improved versions of the first demo.

Before is start, i would like to say, that i'm NOT an expert, when it comes to FREDing.

Spoiler:

The custom music you mentioned is always triggering, that's good!

You can see on the pic below that the nebula is overlapping the planet.





In the Vorlon vs Earth ships mission the Omega destroyer is flipped upside down, dunno if this intentional, but it looks a bit odd.

here is the screenie:






The messages in the last cutscene aren't showing up.
While playing, i thought it's a cool scene like you see them in movies, no dialogue a.s.o.,
but as i checked it in FRED, there are messages supposed to show up.

In the rush i checked the missions, i couldn't find the error, why they don't show up.
It could also be, that it's something on my end, if you or someone else could check and verify,
just to be sure...


One more thing:


In the Vorlon vs Earth mission, there are to Vorlon Dreadnought's.
The first one is jumping out, and a bit later is a second one jumping in.
My question is: is this supposed to be the same ship?
                         You named them "Great Guardian" and Great-Guardian"

If the answer is no, everything is fine ( FREDing wise ).

If the answer is yes, then you can cheat by naming the first one "Great Guardian" and the second one
"Great Guardian#a".

The game doesn't display everything after the #.


I also didn't clear the Bonus, have to play it again...

Besides these minor things, it's really good campaign, and i hope to see more.

[darkmaster]

Hi Angelus,
I will correct the things you mentioned.

Spoiler:

For the last cutscene... normally the messages will show up but I got this problem once. I couldn't understand either. The solution is to create a new pilot and start the campaign again.
Anyway I will replay it and try to figure out why sometimes the messages show up and sometimes they don't.
For the great-guardian thing thanks for your advice this was the same ship. But I don't know if I should change its name since changing ship's name after finishing all the event is a very bad practice to my opinion.

[Angelus]

Yeah, i forgot that inferno builds require a new pilot, my bad.

[FUBAR-BDHR]

Spoiler:

Mission 1 has quite a few issues.  Biggest is the difficulty.  On easy the only way I could make it through was hide in the hanger bays of the ships and blow up the enemy as they were spawning.  The friendly AI don't even last the first wave.  I had to get more than 60 kills myself.  Other problems:  Vorlon ships are scannable with no cargo and the before mentioned ability to just sit in the hanger of the caps. 

Mission 2.  Very good. 

Mission 3.  Lack of directives for the player.  I had no idea what I was supposed to be doing and no matter what I try it ends with my engines failing.  Again this is on easy and there are over 60 ships to kill.  Friendly AI lasts mere seconds leaving me to both defend the caps and attack.  If you take the logical course and go after the flagship you loose because you can't disable it (assuming the engines are guardianed) which seems to be the directive you are given.  EA Vengence missiles fired from the Dilgar ships.  Since they are targetable it's a real standout.  Suggest a .tbm with them renamed. 

Mission 4.  Again with the lack of directives at the start.  Also at that period in time did the EA even have beam weapons on those ship classes?    Also while this one might actually be possible on easy it's very difficulty.  Again all the AI are wiped out very quickly leaving the player against all the fighters and trying to disarm the caps before they kill Kosh. 

Overall it's a good concept but it needs some balancing. 

[CaptJosh]

Inferno builds USED to convert pilots, I thought, but ever after, that pilot would only work in an inferno build...

[darkmaster]

Spoiler:

Mission 1 has quite a few issues.  Biggest is the difficulty.  On easy the only way I could make it through was hide in the hanger bays of the ships and blow up the enemy as they were spawning.  The friendly AI don't even last the first wave.  I had to get more than 60 kills myself.  Other problems:  Vorlon ships are scannable with no cargo and the before mentioned ability to just sit in the hanger of the caps. 

Mission 2.  Very good. 

Mission 3.  Lack of directives for the player.  I had no idea what I was supposed to be doing and no matter what I try it ends with my engines failing.  Again this is on easy and there are over 60 ships to kill.  Friendly AI lasts mere seconds leaving me to both defend the caps and attack.  If you take the logical course and go after the flagship you loose because you can't disable it (assuming the engines are guardianed) which seems to be the directive you are given.  EA Vengence missiles fired from the Dilgar ships.  Since they are targetable it's a real standout.  Suggest a .tbm with them renamed. 

Mission 4.  Again with the lack of directives at the start.  Also at that period in time did the EA even have beam weapons on those ship classes?    Also while this one might actually be possible on easy it's very difficulty.  Again all the AI are wiped out very quickly leaving the player against all the fighters and trying to disarm the caps before they kill Kosh. 

Overall it's a good concept but it needs some balancing. 

Thanks FUB for mission 4 just cheat by disarming the capships while they were talking with Kosh ^^.
I think I must add more friendly fighters on upper difficulty level to make it winable. In all the missions the directives are written in the directive board, just have a look at it and you will know what to do.

EA ships already have beam weapon in this period (after the EA-Minbari war and before Babylon 5). I modified the ships' weapons according to the B5 RPG book.

The concept is to fight big battles with many capships and a bunch of fighters to make the game as intense as possible. It turns out that this makes balancing a little difficult.