[ThePsuedoMonkey]

Newest Version:

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[ThePsuedoMonkey]

Updated to be functional.  I got tired of trying to get query_orders to work like I wanted, but the directives tell you what to do.

[ThePsuedoMonkey]

Monday update:
Started working on textures again.  I made a quick nameplate of the battlestar with my tentative name ("Osiris") but didn't do a whole lot with it in case you guys want a different name.  I'm currently trying to build a script for GIMP to streamline the post-processing of the nebulae made from SpaceScape, since that sounded a lot less tedious at the time.  I have yet to setup the debrief or objectives though.

[Hammer65]

Still early days yet on this one.  The briefing was well done and did a good job of setting up the mission.

I scanned the convoy and had one of the vessels fire at me.  I assumed I should kill it as it was briefly hostile so I ordered the bolithos to attack.  They didn't kill it and the cargo vessel went from hostile to neutral.   I assume that's why they would not fire on it.  I decided to kill it myself but ran out of ammo before it died.  One of the vessels I was supposed to order to follow me but I wasn't sure how to accomplish that.  Maybe a training message would be helpful there.  At that point I was kind of stuck so I decided to return to the Osirus and land but I wasn't able to target it.  Not sure if it jumped out but it wasn't on my target list.  I would suggest adding it and the interesting vessels in the convoy to the escort list.  Not being sure what to do next I jumped out.  Debrief is not in yet so I wasn't sure how bad I did  

The skybox definitely gives the mission a unique feel which is good for a user made campaign.  I do think it probably needs to have the number of larger stars (ones with halos) toned down.  I think we have all adopted Osirus as the name of the battlestar so proceed on the nameplate if you have the time.  I'll keep checking back as you post updates.

[ThePsuedoMonkey]

New version (courtesy of insomnia) takes care of a lot of that.  To my great dismay, it appears that one cannot use variables in a list of arguments (i.e. it will be replaced with its initial value if you try).  The skybox is in the process of being completely reworked (mostly the nebulae), but I should have something to show off next week or so.

[ThePsuedoMonkey]

Rockin' a new skybox now, as well as a decent nameplate for the battlestar.  I re-did a lot of the mission (at least in terms of code) so it seems to be pretty stable now.  I was also playing around with the mkVIIe nameplate, which I think I threw up a pikke for in the other sub-forum.  I'm not really digging that crest much though, so if you guys think of something cool I'm all ears!  I put up the base that I'm using too, so you guys can play with it if the mood strikes.

[Cerebus]

just gave it a first play through, lots of good elements, I'll probably play it a few times over the weekend and give you more detailed feedback but real quick

in the beginning you refer to Sagetaron as Sagetaron Actual, in military jargon "Actual" refers to the commander of a unit, so use another word, as they wouldn't use it like that in the brief

the lack of stars was disconcerting, I'm not sure why

considering the complexity of the freding you had to do for this hopefully the fact that that's all I came up with off hand for constructive criticism should be interpreted as a compliment. 

[ThePsuedoMonkey]

No reason for a lack of stars to be disconcerting
Right now the mission is looking for a skybox model which is ever-so-creatively named "newskybox.pof"  You can find the archive of it in the "resources" folder in the Dropbox directory.  Hopefully it looks a little better than no stars at all! 

One thing I'm really interested in is how intuitive/aggravating/silly it is to work with the convoy from a fresh perspective.

[ThePsuedoMonkey]

So it looks like Blood and Chrome stole the name to our battlestar  I think I'll wait to make a new nameplate until after its last episode.  In the meantime, I've done a pretty hefty polishing of this mission and it seems to be fairly robust at this point.  I've uploaded a lo-res version of the skybox I was working on in the hopes that I get some more feedback on it:
http://www.filedropper.com/lores

[Suongadon]

Got all re-motivated to get back into this, so here goes:


Great mission overall, the pacing felt just right and I always knew what I was supposed to be doing.

One thing I'm really interested in is how intuitive/aggravating/silly it is to work with the convoy from a fresh perspective.

Dealing with the convoy seemed fine first time through.  I think it would be nice to have a 'distance I should be going' along with the 'distance-from', rather than just 'fly until the beacon prompt comes up' though.

The first time on the mission I didn't have any trouble with the signal light bit, but the second time (after getting murderated by the missiles) I couldn't seem to get it to trigger unless I held the key down for several seconds.

When the 2nd and 3rd volatile were detected. I didn't get a prompt to use signal light/beacon either but it still worked - though the debug lines said I had no beacons left when I hit the key???

Also, I think there should be a prompt for the key bound to 'target next/nearest unscanned' attached to the 'scan the ships' directive, rather than having to cycle through the escort list to find one to scan. I do like how the mobile/kamikaze ships rose on the list though - though I didn't notice it until after I scrolled through the target list to find the ship

More general:

Most important-like, the mission didn't end/the scan directive didn't complete though I scanned all of the ships and dealt with all of the volatiles/kamikazes, so I couldn't see how I did.  No idea why when I cracked it open though.

The tube launch hangs for a couple seconds, though the speed increases as if it is moving? Looked at it in the editor and don't see why though.

I think you should move the convoy/battlestar closer together at the start, though the messages fill the approach quite evenly. In the same vein, the frigates only sent their 'approaching the convoy' message about five minutes in, after I'd already blown up the ship shooting missiles and dealt with one of the volatiles. Maybe have them jump in closer.

The bombs on a Mk VII seem a bit ridiculous tbh in external view, maybe just force the player to take a VIIe?

The rest of my wing doesn't actually launch from the battlestar so they get dragged along with it when it jumps out.

Maybe use #weak variant missiles for the hijacked ship, or have fewer coming out at one time/ not all shooting the player, first time through I was coming in at a decent speed towards the ship when it triggered and was insta-killed by a pair of missiles before I could evade.  Though this could just be because I suck since I haven't played diaspora in basically a month

and a final nitpick:

The blue is very hard to read on on the briefing screen, maybe use pink for that? Also, one of the icons for white wing overlaps with the convoy icon on stage 4.

So it looks like Blood and Chrome stole the name to our battlestar  I think I'll wait to make a new nameplate until after its last episode.

Totally don't remember what I was going to say here...

[karajorma]

I had a quick cursory look through the mission, I'll play it in more detail later but here's the issues I noticed (other than the ones Suongadon already mentioned).

From Playing the mission.

Green Wing's Icon comes up as a Jump Node rather than a Viper.
The player starts out with a loadout of Tercios, which the Viper isn't capable of actually carrying. I'd agree that  using MK VIIe's might be a good solution.
The biggest problem I had with the mission was one of not being certain what to do once a ship decided to abandon the convoy. I kept looking at it and pressing the L key as it asked, and nothing much seemed to change.
 

If the last two posts worth of suggestions are acted upon, I'll test this again.

[Ace]

The Sobek class Osiris might have been built after the B&C one was destroyed.

[ThePsuedoMonkey]

Ok, here's a new one for you guys!  The other vipers will launch, but I don't have anything special for them at the moment.  I'm not sure why the tube launch hangs either, but I figured it was just my laptop being slow.  The goal with the Tercio missiles was to give you a last resort if you were slow to intercept one of the kamikaze ships, but the extra vipers seems to make that a little pointless.  I'll need to think of a way to make that play out better.  I was going to put in a 'target next unscanned' but it looks like [alt + C] already does that in the default layout.

I increased the delay of the missiles, but kept the same number; that way you shouldn't get murderated, but you still won't be able to just soak 'em up either.  There shouldn't be any more grief from the escort/beacon stuff either, since the code will keep track of the beacons and I took out the randomness of that trigger.  Frigates are closer.  Using the mkVIIe now.  Some playing with the messages happened at some point.  I think that's everything I did, but I'm probably forgetting something.

The Sobek class Osiris might have been built after the B&C one was destroyed.

Sweet, now I've got a reason to be lazy and leave it as-is! 

[ThePsuedoMonkey]

I gave this one another once-over, and everything seems pretty sweet now.  If anyone finds something amiss, let me know (especially if you take a peek at the code and have a suggestion!), otherwise I'm assuming this one is all wrapped up and ready for the first FA release!

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[karajorma]

Well I'm on holiday at the moment so I can't actually play Diaspora, but I'll take a look at it as soon as I get back. Hopefully the other people writing missions will comment in the meanwhile.