[QuakeIV]

Yes, Edward.

[MrTealTwo]

This was one amazing campaign, bigchunk1. Great work. Everything about it was fresh and the new weapons really managed to keep the gameplay fun. And the setting was awesome. More campaigns like this, please The space-time around me got filled with quality when playing this one

I did encounter random crashing on the mission where...

Spoiler:

your beam weapon gets activated.

But there are always ways to circumvent trouble. Like switching to insane, killing yourself five times and proceeding to the next mission. Or extracting the missions out of the vp-file, renaming them and playing them in the mission simulator... Lots of options

[PeterX]

  Fully used features of 3612 of FSO? That was the first campaign,that i jumped in to or (and) out of subspace.
The subpace missile is a new idea inbound a mission.
Peter

[Firartix]

I think there were player usable SSM in Shivans!, and that some TBP Campaigns (the one with the whole raiders/pirate deal, cant recall the name?) was using in-mission subspace jumps

Anyway, now stuck on M05B due to the imbawsmoness of the turrets D:... cant get boss lower than 50%
Any suggestion?

[Deadly in a Shadow]

Uhh, there are subspace-missiles in BP, too.

[bigchunk1]

...Anyway, now stuck on M05B due to the imbawsmoness of the turrets D:... cant get boss lower than 50%
Any suggestion?

Read the spoiler text if you want a hint:

Spoiler:

Playing on insane forces you to approach this one with a sightly different strategy. Use the range of the Zwide to your advantage. Try to keep a reasonable distance from Emerald or his turrets will cut you up. Also you should constantly be zigzagging away those projectiles and only making attack runs when necessary. The cluster warheads which are launched at you require a nonstandard evasive strategy.

[Droid803]

**** me for actually using glide.
Stuck on SUBSPACE DRIVE ENGAGED, drifting at 80m/s :/

y u force me jump

can't cancel can't jump out. can't even open menu.

GG.

SCP, plz fix force-jump.

[bigchunk1]

Wow, I just confirmed it and submitted a mantis report. Good catch, that's quite a nasty glitch.

Be careful about using glide I guess... especially if you think the mission is about to end.

[Droid803]

The_E just fixed after I harped on it a bit in #SCP, I think

Spoiler:

**** YEAH I'M IN A SUN CRUSHER. TIME TO CRUSH SOME SUNS. WHOOOOO.

[Rodo]

haha! loved the ending there

Spoiler:

for once I get to be the bad guy!

[Mr_Blastman]

Hahahahaha this is a hoot!  Thanks for releasing it!    Very well done, your hard work shows.

[Cobra]

Haven't had a crash yet, but I'm seeing some odd graphic glitches. The radar gauge randomly loses most of its transparency and the edges get kinda fuzzy. Sometimes when I fired a secondary weapon the skybox would disappear and a new background would show up, and the effect for the APE would turn into a solid color instead of the giant fireball it is.

[EDIT]Seems like most of the issues have been fixed. Experimental features are experimental for a reason.

[bigchunk1]

I forgot the recommend playing the campaign using Nighteye's shockwaves. Just edited the original post.

[Commander Zane]

Good thing I always use those shockwaves.

[Droid803]

Eh, the basic mediavps shockwaves worked fine for me (2D)

[FSW]

I just completed The Antagonist. I really like it! This post will contains spoilers.

The gameplay is the main attraction here, and it is a lot of fun. The lack of mission objective diversity (destroy enemies, survive) is not an issue, as there are some interesting gameplay mechanics that I haven't seen before, and a wide range of cleverly designed enemy ships and weapons. There are balance issues; some player weapons are rarely useful, and the final missions (near the star) were disappointingly easy (possibly due to the overpowered low-cooldown Zwide SSM).

There are a lot of novel ideas in this campaign, particularly with regards to jumping in and out of subspace to fight enemies; unfortunately, the execution is buggy (probably due to engine limitations). For example, when entering normalspace, subspace missiles are still visible and still collide with the player. Also, if the player warps to subspace while another ship is in the process of warping out from normalspace, that other ship will still be visible disappearing into a portal from subspace.

The boss fights are an excellent idea. Each boss personality of their own and a unique battle strategy. However, the Ozmund boss fight is too rigidly scripted, and the FREDding is transparent. The mission will not allow the player to cause more than 25% to the shield generator at a time. It is obvious that it is a different ship every time it warps. This breaks the illusion that the player is chasing the quarry between dimensions. It would be great if there were more ways of fighting this boss than by following Edward's commands (such as simply depleting the shields by force) and if damage done carried over between jumps.

I like the quirky setting, with its caricature villains. The player gets the impression that they are all alone in a hostile world, at the helm of an extremely advanced machine; powerful, yet vulnerable. The voice acting is a nice touch; it's not convincing, but it is better than silence, and it works fine for the cartoony tone of the campaign. I'd like a plot hole filled: why would anyone in the Oligarchy program Edward with his mission? Also, why does the Oligarchy have a navy?

Stylisitcally, the ship designs are well chosen, and the music is unintrusive. The ABE cannon really needs a better sound effect; also, the giant flash it makes seems disproportionate to the damage it causes.

The game crashes from time to time; I haven't noticed a particular trigger.

In conclusion, while this campaign lacks polish in some areas, it is a lot of fun to play. I would welcome an update that fixes issues, and I am looking forward to Bigchunk's future works.

[bigchunk1]

Great Review, thanks.

About the subspace missiles: They actually don't harm you if you are in normal space so they work as intended as far as gameplay is concerned. I tried to use the explosion sexp to remove them when you jump out by enabling EMP but it caused the missiles to simply hang and rotate in one spot until an inevitable crash occurred, so I decided to remove the emp.

Commodore Ozmund is one of my personal favorite characters, especially after darkblade agreed to voice act him. All the bossfights are supposed to have a somewhat classic arcade feel about them, the multistage 'contrived' format is perhaps more familiar to those who used to play such games.

"Why would anyone in the Oligarchy program Edward with his mission?"
This is really the spoiler to end all spoilers so read the text below only if you have beaten the campaign.

Spoiler:

If you read the tech description 'secret projects' under intelligence in the tech room you might be able to derive the answer to that question. Edward and the X86-Starcracker are part of a new military doctrine for the Oligarchy to expand. It is both a scout and a first strike unit, able to destroy a whole star systems on first contact should any extra-human life in that system be identified as a serious threat to the Oligarchy. Why does the Oligarchy believe there is intelligent life out there all the sudden after all these years with no such evidence? That question is unanswered.

Edward has been programmed to see these extermination missions through and psychologically assist the pilot of the ship in carrying them out. Unfortunately for the Oligarchy (if you picked that ending) Edward was never supposed to attack a home system.

"Also, why does the Oligarchy have a navy?"

The Oligarchy's fleet, or at least the bulk of it, is what's left of the Nationalist Union's former fleet. They have been decommissioning ships on a slow and sure basis since the 'civil drug act' which you can read about in the tech room. The Nationalist Union needed a military for many of the same reasons one might need forces at times of international peace. Rogue corporations, criminal factions or 'pirates' to coin the cliché. It's a big universe out there and a sizable force was required to police it. I don't think the Nationalist Union would have been as well equipped as say the GTA or the PVN in the event of invasion by an alien race.

Is the APE sound effect that bad?! I thought it sounded cool lol.
Anyways, glad you liked the campaign.

[MatthTheGeek]

They're all haters. The APE sound is kool. Let em hatin'.

[Deadly in a Shadow]

They're all haters. The APE sound is kool. Let em hatin'.

+1

I like that sound too. Reminds me to the old FS1 sounds.

[bigchunk1]

Played through the campaign again (on very easy) with build 7877 and experienced no crashes. Glide force-warp glitch has been fixed by this and all later builds.
Original post updated.