[Ferret]

I'm really enjoying the campaign, but I just got to mission 16 Interference and I have a game breaking bug.

Spoiler:

The "silent mode" wont initialise. I'm hitting 1 as hard as I can. On numpad too and it's just not doing anything, all the while Command is having a go at me. I've ensured it's unbound to anything else but still nothing. Tried rolling my face across the keyboard and nothing works. Any ideas? I'm just running through Knossos with FSO 21.4.0-RC3

[SilverAngelX]

That's strange. I was unable to reproduce this behavior, neither with RC3 nor RC4. In all cases I tried, the game reacted as expected. It would seem that there must be some sort of configuration thing on your side. But since the key is unbound, as you say, I have no idea at the moment what that could be. Maybe someone else with more knowledge of the inner workings of the engine has a clue...

[Goober5000]

It's probably because the key is unbound that it's not working.  Try binding it to "(Multiplayer) Message All".

[Ferret]

It's probably because the key is unbound that it's not working.  Try binding it to "(Multiplayer) Message All".

That actually worked. Thanks! I have no idea how it got unbound in the first place.

[Colt]

Finally got around to playing New Path a couple of days ago. This was a very fun campaign, and I particularly liked the world building. Mission balance was nice with very few hiccups along the way. It's certainly replay worthy! I'm eagerly looking forward to Act 2. 

A couple of little bugs I came across:

Spoiler:

In the mission where you and your wings are in silent mode waiting for the enemy convoy to arrive, Alpha 4 and Beta 4 still had their engine thrusters enabled.

In the penultimate I got both the good and bad debriefing after McPherson's pod was towed away. Fortunately the mission still proceeded.

[SilverAngelX]

Thanks for the feedback, I will check on those. I hope I can get a bugfixing update out within the next couple of weeks. It will likely be the last one before chapter 2 (writing is progressing; slower than I had hoped, but progressing nevertheless).

[0rph3u5]

Okay, I made it past mission 18, so I feel qualified to review this campaign - I am going to finish it later but going from Mission 17 into the Mission 18 kinda exhausted me...

First, I would like to commend you - for your first campaign this is solid writing, even thought there are a few cringe elements there; and I am saying this after having stared down my own first campaign recently, which were of much lesser quality and need(ed) a lot of polish before I could be satisfied with them.
The scenario, while wholly original (it reminds me a bit of the Auriga-subplot in Derelict), is well executed and with much more attention to making it credible than previous versions I've played.

The bad mostly comes from stuff that I can understand as being the result of a lack of experience but should nonetheless be mentioned here:

- The balance of many missions can swing wildly; sometimes its is an overreliance on the "Near Ship"-arrival anchor which introduces "wild" variation through the sheer distance a player has to travel, where it is not needed (e.g. Missions 5 and 11), other times it appears to be that the balance was done using subtraction method of balancing (i.e. start with a high volume of the enemy fighters and reduce their numbers to balance), which can compound with the existing familiarity of the mission to declare the balancing okay prematurely (I know, I am guitly of that many times over).

- Towards the end the scenario trips over itself and goes against it previously established creditibility - Mission 17 and Mission 18 reduce the countering the supposed enemy brain power into exercises in tedium. If you are enemies are supposed to be that smart as suggested before those mission, these kind of attrition based scenarios should allow them to do more - A steady drip may errode a mountain, but the moutain doesn't have the ability and smarts to make an umbrella. /tortured metaphore

- Another thing - which ususally is not something you hold against a first time-campaign maker, but Mission 5 made it painfully obvious - is that the campaign could benefit from allowing more "partial success" states for its missions - these add some replayability to the campaign but also function as an acknowledgement of player skill, which create a sense of ackomplishment not just completion.

- And some newer techniques to improve battlefield awareness could provide a significant improvement on occassion - e.g. to use a consistent lingustic framing for the directives which makes a difference between fighter wings ("Destroy") and bomber wings ("Intercept").


In a nutshell, a first outing with some familiar issues for first time campaign makers but still wroth the time investment to check it out - not only to enjoy the novelty of the FMV cutscenes.

[0rph3u5]

Two bugs I found in Mission 19:

Spoiler:

When the Bosch reaches the Node and self-destructs, the same dialogue as if Lambda had docked - even if Lambda was not arrived yet.

Transport Omega is not secured against being disabled and the mission always fails if it doesn't dock with the Pod.

[SilverAngelX]

Hi 0rph3u5,
thanks for your feedback. I added the two bugs to my to-do list.

Regarding your general feedback:

• Near ship anchor: This one's an example of finding the right compromise between in-universe realism and gameplay balancing. In-universe it does make a lot of sense for an attack on a stationary target to jump in from various attack vectors for the expressed purpose of making the defenders fly long distances. In case of mission 11 I do agree, that the large hitbox of an Arcadia makes that more challenging than it should be and I've already changed the mission to have a more localized entry area for the attackers. In case of mission 5 I'm not sure whether that is the right approach. You mentioned "balancing by subtraction". Ironically, mission 5 is an example of the opposite. My original version had less hostile ships, but during beta testing I got the feedback that the mission was too easy and too short, so I reluctantly added more pirates. Reluctantly, because I found it unrealistic that the pirates would send more ships to the attack. But for gameplay's sake I added more, thus making the mission harder than I originally intended. But I think for this mission the culprit is actually the next point.
• Balancing in general: I agree, that some missions are not balanced very well. Especially after last week's stream with Joe I would say, this is in large part to the unreliability of the wingmen. I tend to micro-manage them quite a lot, so during my own tests I didn't reach the level of wingmen casualties we saw last week. My lesson learned here is that my playstyle doesn't seem to be very representative. So in order to get the balancing right, I need different approches, different styles, different used difficulty levels to get that kind of feedback. For chapter 1 the roster of beta testers was rather small, so maybe it wasn't diverse enough to get feedback from all the needed angles. I intend to change that for chapter 2 and have a more diverse roster of testers.
• Partial successes: I have mixed feelings about those. In some cases in the FS2 Retail campaign I was surprised what kind of collateral damage Command was willing to accept. But that was during war times and I can understand that acceptable losses are a thing in such times. I'm not sure this kind of stance suits the story I want to tell. And then there were some cases during the development of this chapter where I dropped the idea of having partial success. I'm not quite sure whether it was being annoyed with something not working out or just being lazy, but there were indeed instances where I made goals more absolute.
• Your point about the scenario losing credibility: I would tend to disagree here that the (re)actions of the opponent force in the last missions goes against their previous superiority. The thing is: That superiority was completely in technology and numbers, combined with an element of surprise (The events of the second half of the chapter play out in about a week). Once that element of surprise wears off and the technological advantages are being countered, it reveals that while they had all those advantages, they crucially lack military experience in terms of strategy and thus overrely on their other advantages. It is one thing to prepare your campaign more or less undisturbed and then strike in a surprise attack. But without proper strategic experience all those other advantages can be countered and you can become cornered easily; a lesson other factions in FS lore had to learn as well. I think that hybris fits the antagonist's character and the idea of that faction in general as not being military and thus making those kind of mistakes.

Again, thanks for the feedback and I will certainly have some more awareness to some of the things during the development of chapter 2.

[0rph3u5]

Near ship anchor: This one's an example of finding the right compromise between in-universe realism and gameplay balancing. In-universe it does make a lot of sense for an attack on a stationary target to jump in from various attack vectors for the expressed purpose of making the defenders fly long distances. In case of mission 11 I do agree, that the large hitbox of an Arcadia makes that more challenging than it should be and I've already changed the mission to have a more localized entry area for the attackers.

Ironically, there is a way to fix that which uses "Near Ship" - you just have to stop using Acadia as the Anchor but instead use an alternative:

e.g. the new Omnibus-version of Rain on Ribos IV, Mission 12 uses stealthed and cloacked nav buoys to keep Durga and Kali wing from arriving at wildly disadvantageous positions:
1) Durga wing data

Code: [Select]

$Name: Durga
[...]
$Arrival Location: Near Ship
+Arrival Distance: 150
$Arrival Anchor: Durga arrival anchor
[...]2) event moving the Durga arrival anchor

Code: [Select]

$Formula: ( every-time-argument
   ( any-of "Duty" "Loyality" )
   ( and
      ( has-arrived-delay 0 "<argument>" )
      ( not
         ( destroyed-or-departed-delay
            0
            "Duty"
            "Loyalty"
         )
      )
   )
   ( set-object-position
      "Durga arrival anchor"
      ( get-object-x
         "<argument>"
         "<none>"
         2000
         300
         -800
      )
      ( get-object-y
         "<argument>"
         "<none>"
         2000
         300
         -800
      )
      ( get-object-z
         "<argument>"
         "<none>"
         2000
         300
         -800
      )
   )
)
+Name: durga arrival point move
+Repeat Count: 1
+Interval: 1You can add a random element with something similar to the following (from RoR_17a-new):

Code: [Select]

$Formula: ( when-argument
   ( random-multiple-of
      "Paimon anchor 1"
      "Paimon anchor 2"
      "Paimon anchor 3"
      "Paimon anchor 4"
   )
   ( true )
   ( set-arrival-info
      "Krishna#wave 1"
      "Near Ship"
      "<argument>"
      0
      120
      0
      ( true )
   )
)
+Name: arrival anchor wave 1-1
+Repeat Count: 1
+Interval: 1... or just appyling a varibale that is randomized each time the event executes and setting the position of anchor each time to a set of coordinates linked to each possible value of the variable.

That way you get the attack wings to attack from different vectors but also retain some control so the spread is not as wild as with a pure "Near Ship".

[SilverAngelX]

Yeah, the nav buoy is my solution as well.

[Mobius]

I've just completed New Path Chapter 1 and I would really like to show my appreciation for the GNN cutscenes, which are a very nice touch that surprised me and deserve some special recognition. I'd recommend sharing this kind of content on a dedicated YouTube video.

Speaking of the campaign itself, I did notice some minor glitches here and there, and I agree with those who reported that mission balance was somehow compromised in critical missions, but I also have to say that the plot became much more interesting towards the end and I'm really looking for a possible sequel, which I hope is currently WIP. 

[SilverAngelX]

Sorry for the late reply and thanks for the feedback. Glad you liked it. And yes, Chapter 2 is still WIP.

But unfortunately real life has a tendency to get into your way. I have another update for Chapter 1 almost ready which addresses some of the problems including the balance issues. And I managed to write and revise the scripts for Chapter 2, so I'm basically ready to start FREDding. I hope I can release the update within the next couple of weeks and then start with actually building Chapter 2. However, I have to finish some projects first, so I cannot make any definitive promises yet.

[SilverAngelX]

So, I finally was able to finish the update to Chapter 1 that has been in the works for over a year... Real life really has a way to interfere with plans. But on the bright side, I finished revising the scripts for Chapter 2, so they're ready to go. If nothing goes wrong (fingers crossed) I will start fredding next week.

Here's the changelog for the new update 1.1.0 (since quite a few things changed, I decided it's worth to increase the version number to 1.1.0)

Patch 1.1.0 Changes

This update contains a major rebalancing of almost all missions in chapter 1. The intent is to remove some spikes in mission difficulty, trying to smooth out the difficulty curve over the course of the chapter. Another important aspect was improving on the default behavior of the AI wingmen, making them less suicidal and more helpful (which in turn reduces difficulty).

Besides that, there's a lot of individual changes:

• General: compatibility checked with latest versions of FSO engine and mod dependencies
• General: rebalancing of all missions (e.g. friendly AI behavior, hostile timings, hostile weapon selection, and more...)
• General: MV_Compatibility package added as required dependency to avoid missing textures
• General: some wording changes to texts in the missions (briefings, messages, etc.)
• Mission 1: some tweaks to avoid confusing messaging bug
• Mission 1: wording issues in briefing and mission corrected
• Mission 4: wording error in debriefing corrected
• Mission 10: added some security features to ensure outcome of scripted events
• Mission 10: removed player orders from the Ibis
• Mission 10: timing of Ibis opening fire synced to the messages
• Mission 11: wording error in command briefing fixed
• Mission 11: arrival paths of hostile bombers are less random
• Mission 12: typos in briefing and debriefing corrected
• Mission 14: arrival paths of hostile wings are less random
• Mission 14: AI orders of hostile ships adapted slightly
• Mission 14: removed success music for some goals before the end of the mission
• Mission 15: Intrepid hull integrity reduced to reflect damages from previous battle
• Mission 16: ship class of the Sisson in briefing corrected
• Mission 16: Alpha 4 and Beta 4 have been told to use silent mode with the rest of their wings
• Mission 16: silent mode now disables glow-maps of friendly fighters
• Mission 17: older bomber classes added to the mission (due to popular demand)
• Mission 17: some AAA turrets of the Intrepid were replaced with laser turrets
• Mission 17: the Intrepid's repair crews now tire quicker
• Mission 18: short range sensor threshold increased for targetting
• Mission 18: arrival conditions for later enemy wings now contain a stop condition
• Mission 19: escape pod departure delay increased by 10 seconds
• Mission 19: messaging bug fixed
• Mission 19: Lambda transport secured against disabling
• Mission 19: Bosch missile launchers now have a less dangerous ordnance
• Mission 19: escape pod secured against accidental destruction during warp-out
• Mission 20: viewpoint of player ship corrected while under AI control
• Mission 20: explosion radius for the scripted explosion reduced so it doesn't look that much like overkill
• Mission 20: timing of scripted events corrected to reduce downtime

Thanks a lot to RedmageJoe for his feedback when he streamed New Path.

Once I'm ready for a beta test on Chapter 2 I'll let you know.

[Goober5000]

Ah, nice to see this.

[SilverAngelX]

Here we go! While it took longer than I had hoped, finally Chapter 2 is out!

New Path
Chapter 2: Shadow Games
After that fateful last mission that left his life hanging in the balance, Lt. Cmdr. Carl Bristow's life and career take an unexpected turn when an old friend reappears...

The second part of the New Path mod continues just where chapter 1 ended. Find out what new challenges Bristow has to face with this new campaign, featuring

• 16 playable missions
• 3 new live action cutscenes
• more new anims for Command Briefings and the Intelligence section of the Tech DB
• even more content for the Tech Database.

I hope you all have fun playing this new campaign. As always: If you find any bugs, please let me know here or via Discord (Username SilverAngelX).

And now, back to writing the scripts for Chapter 3... 

[Colt]

Congrats on the release of chapter 2! Looking forward to giving it a spin (after giving chapter 1 a fresh run of course) 

[Goober5000]

Excellent news!  I am looking forward to playing this as well.

[Mobius]

Awesome, my most sincere congratulations on this release!

[Iain Baker]

Sweet! I’ll add it to the list 🙂

PS - thank you for your FRED tutorials on YT - they really helped me learn the ropes of FREDing 🙂