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Bolow posted:War in Heaven Pt Deux is out. Link here.  IT'S CHRISTMAS AGAIN
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Jan 8, 2013 07:40
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 Battuta, I've got a problem. I've just started the new part of WiH but, after the Act 3: Tenebra title/loading screen, I get hit with this error message: code:edit: Ah, it was my mod.ini file. Just had to change the folder in which the Media VPs were located in. Problem solved! Milkfred E. Moore fucked around with this message at 14:12 on Jan 8, 2013 |
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Jan 8, 2013 14:05
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Dukka posted:Now I can enjoy even more missions with cool pals in space. Yesssssss
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Jan 9, 2013 05:55
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Ankle-biter posted:Well I guess we can disagree about never stop moving, but it's nice that the game can work with different play-styles! This annoys the hell out of me because you end up in situations where targeted enemies become so evasive they're very difficult to handle, but untargeted ones are fish in a barrel. I end up unconsciously abusing it when certain missions get really challenging. It ought to be fixed so that dealing damage enables the evasive behavior and targeting enemies enables it when you get within range.
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Jan 9, 2013 06:11
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I imagine that that will probably break a number of campaign missions. AFAIK the AI is a complete mess code-wise and anyone that tries to improve it finds it falling down spectatularly. This is why it's pretty much the only part of SCP that has made no great advancements. (If I recall correctly, the original release of the code apologised in a comment for the state of the AI code. It also has lots of references to "robots", I guess showing just how much Freespace owes it's code legacy to Descent.)
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Jan 9, 2013 08:31
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I just finished the new part of War in Heaven. It is amazing and really shows off what the FS2 engine can do. But, Battuta, I'm going to send you a PM because... that final mission... What on Earth was with that certain reference? Was it just an Easter egg? I- just- what.  Just fantastic. I might get a more detailed spoiler post up later. edit: Oh, no PMs, well then. SPOILERS FOR LAST MISSION. If you turn around and get subjected to that bizarre imagery and brain death - the debriefing has something to do with Transcend. Was tht just a nifty little easter egg as very few people would willingly turn around... or is this something more?
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Jan 9, 2013 08:39
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Baby Sathanas posted:I imagine that that will probably break a number of campaign missions. AFAIK the AI is a complete mess code-wise and anyone that tries to improve it finds it falling down spectatularly. This is why it's pretty much the only part of SCP that has made no great advancements. This was true before War in Heaven and Diaspora, but we've mastered the AI in most respects and now it's really cool and customizable and fun. War in Heaven had the first really extensive custom AI - it's why the warships are so much more deadly and how that one 5v3 dogfight was made so intense. quote:edit: Oh, no PMs, well then. SPOILERS FOR LAST MISSION. If you turn around and get subjected to that bizarre imagery and brain death - the debriefing has something to do with Transcend. Was tht just a nifty little easter egg as very few people would willingly turn around... or is this something more? Interesting to see what people will make of this!
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Jan 9, 2013 08:49
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General Battuta posted:This was true before War in Heaven and Diaspora, but we've mastered the AI in most respects and now it's really cool and customizable and fun. War in Heaven had the first really extensive custom AI - it's why the warships are so much more deadly and how that one 5v3 dogfight was made so intense. I'm still struggling to put everything into coherent sentences. Everything was really well done, Battuta and this part has taken what could have been a very typical story and absolutely turned everything on its head. Part of me has no idea what just happened which I suppose is fitting for that incredible final mission but, unless I'm wrong, I also caught a reference to Vassago along with Sync and Transcend. Just amazing.
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Jan 9, 2013 09:12
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Gonna do a full playthrough of BP as a warmup for Act 3. Anyone have recommended lighting settings? I've tried the defaults and some of the recommended ones on the wiki but haven't really found one I like. Yes, I know that BP recommends -spec_point 0.3 edit: TheDemon fucked around with this message at 11:51 on Jan 9, 2013 |
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Jan 9, 2013 10:22
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Okay, so, final mission again. The Transcendent flat out appears during the flashback/alternate reality/deathbed hallucination of Delenda Est? If these aren't just little nods, then I'm incredibly curious about where this is going, Battuta!
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Jan 9, 2013 14:43
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I'm playing Her Finest Hour and I for the life of me can't figure out how to avoid the "Losses among the Touatis attack elements were effectively total" result. I literally killed EVERYTHING on the field, including the sentry virus, both cruisers, both corvettes, and even the dish-less AWACS. I also kill all 3 of the Carthage's radars. Then I called ONLY the anti-turret and the two gunship squads. I don't think there even are 40 spaceframes between them. And then the moment the Carthage is disabled, which takes less than 20 seconds, I order them to retreat. And I still fail whatever this objective is.
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Jan 10, 2013 00:34
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I am probably a loving idiot and broke something in the way casualties are counted. Which is weird, because it was working during beta. Just don't worry about it for now, zero consequences in this act.
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Jan 10, 2013 00:47
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Okay, so, I've managed to collect my thoughts enough to make a reasonable post. First things first. Battuta, this campaign is incredible and you should be very proud of your work. The music is great, the updated graphics are beautiful to look at, the story remains interesting and thought-provoking and, really, the whole thing is starting to feel like a 'sequel' to Freespace 2. I tend to be very difficult to please when fan-made works delve into the mythos of franchises like this but Blue Planet has managed to nail it. It can't be stated enough that this is a very well-written series. It de-sanitises the 'clean' warfare of Freespace and does it in such a way that feels mature as opposed to 'grimdark'. I can very much see this campaign becoming the fanon version of events for the next part of the FS timeline. I'm going to break this down into spoiler by spoiler blocks for each mission or section. INTRO I loved this intro sequence. Seeing the Battle of Saturn again brought me right back to Delenda Est. Seeing what was happening throughout the system at the same time was neat. Really, it's hard to believe just how far cutscenes like this have come. The difference between even just WiH's first cutscene and this one is just astounding. INTERLUDE SEQUENCES The fiction was a joy to read, as always. However, I'm pretty divided on the Dreamscape. On one hand, it's a great idea - but it didn't feel like it belonged and it felt like there was too much time spent on it. If I have any big criticism of Tenebra, it is that there is too much of an emphasis of what I may unfairly call 'gimmicks'. I liked talking to the pilots and the various other characters and getting a perspective on events. I liked seeing the grid update and change as the war progressed. The music was great, too. However, by the third or so time, I was just running through it with time compression on. Fly to ship, press trigger, fly to other ship, press trigger. I think something like this is interesting but should probably be used more sparingly than it was. It felt excessive running it after every mission. FIRST MISSION I loved it. It's a familiar sort of mission with a few interesting twists. Nothing really to say about it. It was a good, solid mission that I enjoyed playing and it served as a great introduction to the Fedayeen and their mindset. SECOND MISSION I enjoyed this one as well. Getting some revenge against Steele felt great! Unfortunately, and this is a recurring theme in my criticism of Tenebra, there was just too much to keep track of. I scanned all three subsytems on the station and there was just too many avenues to consider, especially when combined with the decoy freighter and the power down cruise mode. I don't know if this is a personal failing or if the FS2 UI isn't capable of displaying it in such a way that renders it more accessible (the custom work on the UI is great though, I had no idea the SCP could customise it so much!) Despite this, the random element and the idea of pulling off an assassination in the dragon's lair is fantastic. It's still a very good mission. THIRD MISSION I didn't enjoy this mission so much. Capital ship combat still doesn't feel right in Freespace 2. I didn't feel like I was in control, with the exception of taking out the Gef flagship's reactor. Things just sort of exploded around me. Even then, I managed to take out the flagship, the other vessels, the fighters and capture the base with a few seconds to spare. Nail-biting tension, though, and I always like seeing more ship designs. This mission was probably the low point of Tenebra for me. Despite the stakes on the line with this mission, it felt like nothing was happening. The briefing said that I would be facing more powerful resistance since I let the pilots head home in the first mission (these choices are great touches) but I can't see how the mission could be any easier than what it was. FOURTH MISSION Whee! A huge engagement! On one hand, it was great that I got to dictate the flow of battle. On the other hand, it felt like I had to retry and retry and retry until I got it right and that my wingmen got to have all the fun. Much like the second mission, I felt like I had too much to keep track of but now, instead of being tools I could use, these things were also actively working against me. I never really got frustrated with it but I would have gathered to be more directly active in bringing the Carthage down instead of being the one giving the orders. I don't know if I was supposed to feel like I had ashes in my mouth but the destruction of the Carthage just didn't feel... exciting. In Delenda Est I was pumped, psyched, up on adrenaline - in this it was just... like the job was done. Which, I suppose could be the point. Still, calling in the Solaris battleship and a huge fleet was great. The FS2 UI still seems to make commanding large groups of ships fairly difficult. I'm not sure if scanning the corvettes affected anything. Did it turn the mines against the GTVA forces or did it deactivate them? Also, I got a reprimand for having huge UEF losses but I don't think many of them went down at all. The stealth mechanics were great and I enjoyed them in every mission where they appeared. Still, this mission felt like a case where there was just 'too much'. Too much to keep track off, too many new features, too much emphasis on the 'commanding officer' role. FIFTH MISSION Similar to the fourth mission - a great idea that is hamstrung by its new features. On the plus side, I had no idea that you could do a TD game in the FS2 engine! However, the interface for placing the turrets was very difficult to use effectively - it felt slow and unresponsive. I enjoyed it and you can place the turrets and be done with it without issue, so, it's not a major concern. The scenery was great. The other thing that bugged me was the Pegasus stealth fighter attack at the end - it vaped the transport in no time at all unless you were specifically looking out for them attacking from the front. Even then, when I engaged them almost immediately, they still did very heavy damage. FINAL MISSION A total headfuck. A voyage to Trip Out City. Where we're going, we won't need eyes. The most uncomfortable I've been in FS2 since playing Transcend. Where do I begin? Well, the mission is very long. I think it could have been served by being split in two but, at the same time, having it as an endurance test gave everything more weight. If you turn around, you'll lose all the time you put into it, for example. This mission was incredibly unsettling, from the DNA debriefing screen (which was also covering the fighters at one point), RUN RUN RUN RUN, the homicide report of Laporte killing Simms, I AM LOOKING FOR YOU, the vitals monitor that gradually gets worse and worse, that bizarre and haunting horror imagery, that huge grey lovecraftian Thing that briefly comes into your vision, Bei's delusional (what a word to use about this mission!) 'I just want to help you! There's no one else here!'... I don't even want to know how you came up with all this. An Evangelion-esque journey into the depths of the mind and through space (and time?) sounds impossible to pull off in the FS2 engine - and yet you did. And, most importantly, it never felt overwrought. The moment I heard that monologue, I realised who Ken was. That was something that could have felt very stupid. But meeting him - or what remains of him - in front of that celestial phenomena (and what was that?) was great. I'll admit, much of the mission went over my head. The Shivan dialogue was basically all scientific gibberish to me which, again, could be the point. Still, I like how neither they nor the Vishnans have come out as obvious 'good guys' - or as obvious caricatures of the Vorlons and Shadows. The Vishnans were my biggest issue with this series since AoA but it seems like I can relax now. I almost had Laporte remain in the alternate reality/time travel/dying hallucination of the battle at Saturn (and just what is the Transcendent doing there?) It was weirdly melancholic and weirdly tempting to have Laporte end there - and I don't have the faintest clue why. Still, she had to return to the real world for Simms! This mission was just amazing. It - and its disturbing imagery (What is that glowing green thing with multiple eyes?) - remained in my head since I finished this part of WiH. I just really need time to digest it and pull it apart and maybe a few more playthroughs... A few answers but just more and more questions. The apocalypse is looming. So, generally speaking... Great music, great writing, beautiful updated graphics, the story and mythos feel solid and mature, the campaign is technically solid with no bugs or slowdown (even in the fourth mission!) The gameplay is great but the more gimmicky missions (three, four, five) feel weird and miss what attracts me to Freespace, that being the hi-octane, quick-paced dogfights, which is something that WiH's first chapters did so well. As a positive, however, those missions serve to really show off what the engine can do and I imagine it will be more refined in any future instalments. Even with those criticisms, it will still be up there as a shining example of FS2 campaigns. An incredible, mind-bending chapter in the Blue Planet saga and well-worth the wait. I can consider this as 'Freespace 3' in my head. Now, I think I need to go sit somewhere and really think on that final mission.
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Jan 10, 2013 13:54
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whoooo boy The last mission: The Vishnan / Shivan conversation is jargon-loaded at first, but a lot of it makes sense once you get to the end of the mission and Aken and the debriefing explains it. Also I liked that you gave his identity away early when Ken refers to "us". I exclaimed out loud "holy poo poo, he's HUMAN". Gonna deconstruct as much of this as I can and put it into terms I can understand more easily: The Summed Psyche is the Vishnan collective consciousness/unconsciousness, they control access and, disturbingly, those who access. Whether this is a literal control or a possessive metaphor isn't clear. They also claim their Summed Psyche is immutable, which the Shivans put into terms for us as "memory past fault or folly". Anima is latin for psyche, but can also refer to the soul or similar. Holocide isn't really a real term, but I take it it's some combination of genocide and holocaust? In this case, when you ask Ken, anima seems to refer to some kind of mind entity or self. The "surpass humanity as humanity surpasses a protein chain" simile isn't just a 'this is beyond you': humans are built of protein chains. Going by the later conversation with Ken, my guess is much like humans are constructed from protein chains, Shivan mind 'anima' are constructed from what we would term individuals, again, as evidenced by Ken himself and Al Da'wa. The Vishnans messed with the 14th in a last-ditch attempt to prevent the civil war. Since the attempt failed, the Shivans are basically in the right that according to Terminal Protocol it was right to cull. The conversation between them has to be taken in present context, too, because since then motivations have changed and the Vishnans want humanity extinct while the Shivans think they might have a purpose for us. You can look back at the conversation and see that the Shivans basically go "we know more than you do, it won't work". Given that the Shivans always take the logical, calculating long view, it's likely that their "attempt" to stop the 14th was actually part of a long-term plan. They sent what, bombers and two cruisers? While the Dante sat there and they had dozens of Sathanas in system? The Shivans let the 14th go. They knew what would happen. They played the Vishnans here, for some unknown purpose. At least, that's what I got out of it? I think I'm close, it's definitely meant to be unclear. On last mission reveals about the nature of the Shivans: "incursion event and worldline intersect at present minus 5 x 10 ^ 9 years" doesn't actually tell us when the Shivans came to be. It just tells us that that's when the Shivans incurred onto our timeline. When Ken says calculated, I think he means that in terms of the calculation/prophecy like the Vasudans do. Basically, they are an inescapable conclusion of reality. "secondary: selective pressure for resumption of panoptic function. secondary: suppression of destructive firewall strategies" panoptic function would be some kind of all-knowing surveillance. If the Shivans have lost this function, it follows maybe their purpose for humanity is to help them regain that? "PRIMARY: imperate! metastatic ontovoric acatalepsis event! subversion of noosphere un - TERMINATE" my guess is the un- is underway. Metastatic refers to the spread of cancer from one organ to another, ontovoric I'm not sure but the prefix means 'living being' or 'organism', and acatelepsis is incomprehensibility. Followed by INTERRUPTED on the Downlink indicator. My guess is Laporte tried to probe too deep, and something Shivan intervened. The Shivans tactics package shows that their logic chain starts with "totipotent threat recognized". I'm not sure if that's a threat that is totipotent, or a threat that threatens totipotency, and if so of what? Are they protecting races yet to come, like Freespace 1 and 2 hypothesized? Or some higher structure that is metaphorically totipotent? The truth about Capella is fascinating. So, while the measured, "autonomic" response is underway there is an "external heuristic injection", "strategic impulse: orion arm arteria threatened". The orion arm is OUR ARM, by the way. The "apatic anima" gives the orders to create a "transabyssal gate" and "roadblock". My guess as to the full "truth" of Capella is the Shivans needed to go deal with some other entity in huge force, and blew up Capella to protect the GTVA until the Shivans could take care of the problem. "apatic anima supervisory issues covert resolution: execute roadblock, generate transabyssal connection" "apatic anima disseminate: engineer transabyssal gate. strategic transitional event imminent. notify exostatic elements. cognicide contingency to activate." All of the Shivan language used throughout the reveals indicates a race that is so calculating that they're basically living computers. Which fits, given that their bodies are structured as supercomputers. We know sending communication through the Nagari process requires processing power, which fits because Shivans can do so with ease. That they have a "holocide anima" entity dedicated to interpreting the Terminal Protocol makes some kind of sense, given how the Shivan system seems to function. We know that there's a Shivan Nagari network; my guess is all their anima are connected in that way, into some kind of system. The way the Shivan mindspeak is presented seems to support this. What's worrying to me is this apocalypse the Terminal Protocol is supposed to prevent. I mean sure, Laporte helping avoid Human extinction is a big deal, but surely this Second Apocalypse is a big deal of its own. TheDemon fucked around with this message at 02:05 on Jan 11, 2013 |
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Jan 11, 2013 01:48
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TheDemon posted:All of the Shivan language used throughout the reveals indicates a race that is so calculating that they're basically living computers. Which fits, given that their bodies are structured as supercomputers. We know sending communication through the Nagari process requires processing power, which fits because Shivans can do so with ease. That they have a "holocide anima" entity dedicated to interpreting the Terminal Protocol makes some kind of sense, given how the Shivan system seems to function. We know that there's a Shivan Nagari network; my guess is all their anima are connected in that way, into some kind of system. The way the Shivan mindspeak is presented seems to support this. It also fits with the recurring deterministic themes in Blue Planet. Everything can be predicted if you know enough variables and can process them efficiently enough. It's why Ubuntu works. It's why Steele is such an amazing tactician and strategic mastermind. CASSANDRA delivers almost prescient information. Like it is said at one point, if you can work so well with data, is that not prophecy? TheDemon, that is all very interesting stuff. It's kind of what I got out of it. The Shivans are much older than the Vishnans, aren't they? I think that, chronologically, it went Shivans -> Brahmans (From something called the Dawn War?) -> Vishnans, but they were all around as a triumvirate at some point. The Brahmans are, however, dead now (Maybe? Perhaps?) The tech room information for the Great Darkness is something I'm mulling over now, as well.
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Jan 11, 2013 01:57
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Milky Moor posted:TheDemon, that is all very interesting stuff. It's kind of what I got out of it. The Shivans are much older than the Vishnans, aren't they? I think that, chronologically, it went Shivans -> Brahmans (From something called the Dawn War?) -> Vishnans, but they were all around as a triumvirate at some point. The Brahmans are, however, dead now (Maybe? Perhaps?) That's what I got out of the timeline too. The Shivans are supposed to be "eternal", and were "calculated". They claim to have existed "beneath the waves" before the Brahams. My guess is actually that the Dawn War or First Apocalypse caused the Shivans to incur into our "worldline" 5 billion years ago, which might mean the Brahams were around longer, but the Shivans have existed longer. Hard to be certain what's fact and what's metaphor, though. I didn't get any new tech room entries  why not?
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Jan 11, 2013 02:27
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TheDemon posted:That's what I got out of the timeline too. The Shivans are supposed to be "eternal", and were "calculated". They claim to have existed "beneath the waves" before the Brahams. My guess is actually that the Dawn War or First Apocalypse caused the Shivans to incur into our "worldline" 5 billion years ago, which might mean the Brahams were around longer, but the Shivans have existed longer. Hard to be certain what's fact and what's metaphor, though. Open the ships.tbl file. You might need a VP viewer, so, I'll reproduce it below. Interestingly, the second last line seems to back up your statement, that the Brahmans were the first. I didn't get any new entries in the tech room either, but everything is there in the .tbl files. This is, I think, the entry for the huge Thing that briefly overtakes the edge of your vision in the final mission. "We have discovered no hint, no residue, no archaelogical or astronomical clue that could confirm the existence of a Brahman civilization. The very notion of a mythical progenitor species is a hoary cliche. Yet our own coexistence with the Vasudans, and our knowledge of the extent of Ancient xenocide, summons a powerful mystery. Technologically sophisticated life is apparently common in the galaxy - it arises frequently, and it has done so for some time now, at least in the cosmological span. Why, then, is the galaxy empty? Why do we find no von Neumann probes propagating through the subspace network? Where is the life that must have come before us? We should inhabit a teeming universe, a bazaar of wonders, a cosmic ecumenopolis overflowing with civilization. The stars and galaxies around us should by all rights have been restructured to the needs of unimaginably sophisticated engineers. Technology self-catalyzes, and that catalysis has had time to flourish. The civilizations of the universe should, by now, have conquered reality itself. Yet we find no such wonder. Our cosmos is silent. Certainly the Shivans provide one answer to this question - a great filter that annihilates spacefaring civilizations. But what if there was a time before the Shivans? What happened to the first life in the universe, the children of the dawn? Did they pass on to some unglimpsable destiny, leaving no wreckage or monument? Or do we inhabit their tomb - a quarantine zone, a carcass, malignant with some ancient mistake?" Milkfred E. Moore fucked around with this message at 03:48 on Jan 11, 2013 |
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Jan 11, 2013 03:45
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Oh, I learned this over on the HLP forums and confirmed it in-missionquote:Serkr will gank the Toutatis if you have fewer than ten points left, have taken more than 19 casualties, and goofed up so badly that both Narayanas had to withdraw. I'm pretty sure I can pull it off so that I have both bomber wings waiting on my wing and the gunboats waiting to be called with those conditions. I should be able to splash at least one, unless they're invul or are allowed to jump. Unfortunately it'll take a lot of time to set up and the casualty counter might be buggged so Sekhr doesn't arrive, but this is definitely my new "secret mission"
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Jan 11, 2013 05:51
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Serkr is set up as a 'you have lost' branch so unfortunately they're pretty much invulnerable. I was tempted to add even further branching there but it's already close to the largest mission ever released filesize-wise.
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Jan 11, 2013 05:57
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I have to apologize to the thread readers for the WALLS OF BLACK BARS discussion, but putting together these pieces is fascinating.Milky Moor posted:Open the ships.tbl file. You might need a VP viewer, so, I'll reproduce it below. Interestingly, the second last line seems to back up your statement, that the Brahmans were the first. Thanks for reproducing that. On the subject, I agree with a lot of the OP of this thread on the HLP forums. Which mentions that The Great Darkness fits with cargo containers the Ken mission earlier in WiH. I've reproduced the cargo container messages here and tried to parse them into sentences: the voices in the womb spoke wordlessly. infancy is amnesia yet you remember them. as a child you were told i was only in your head, yet where else are voices ever heard? you are not mad, nor have you ever been. you are no mystic. you are a made thing, gifted with an ear for the quantum whisper. you draw a line between two worlds, the world of fighters and armor and briefings and the world of demons and portents. but in this dreamscape, this child's phantasmogoria is a glimpse into a world just as real and deadly, a place of strategems and treachery and power that seems to you as strange as a briefing would seem to an ape. those who walk among infinite worlds must still wage war. do not be lulled by the false words of mysticism and spirituality. we too struggle with our own war in heaven. our purpose is unclear. the ancient design fails. we perform bahkti and tapasya in order to divine the will of those who passed deeper eons ago, leaving us to preserve and our brothers in dance to their frigid watch at the border where worlds fray and blur together. brothers, brothers paramatma! why are you so cold? you tend to the walls and the clockwork while we the gardeners execute your will upon all life within. you maintain the old plan, but do not pretend surprise when we cast it aside. your creators blundered once and in doing so unleashed the deepness of the cosmos. we must prepare. BALANCE MUST BE MAINTAINED. THE ORIGINAL PLAN IS IMPERATIVE. WE SEEK THE ONE OUT OF MANY THE ONE WHO CAN MATCH THE BRAHAMS OF OLD. ENLIGHTENMENT IS A THRESHOLD THE CATALYST FOR AMALGAMATION, FOR THE SINGULARITY THAT BINDS WHOLE SPECIES INTO THE UNION WE SEEK. THE OLD BURNT COSMOS CLEAN IN THE WARS OF THEIR YOUTH NEVER AGAIN WILL THAT PRICE BE PAID. There's also a GTVI tech room entry: Vishnans - What We Know, that states: Our tentative simulations suggest that the Vishnan 'Great Psyche' is a subspace stack entity, a sophisticated construct that exploits energy gradients in subspace to perform computation and cognition. Because subspace surrounds and connects universes, this entity exists outside space and time, and is capable of observing the entire space-time bulk. This grants it complete knowledge of all events past and future, although this knowledge may be hampered by quantum uncertainty. Some conclusions: Subspace surrounds all universes, and so can be defined as walls. Remember, walls both keep out and keep in! The Vishnans maintain subspace, the Shivans inside prevent them from being broken from within. If the Vishnan Summed Psyche exists outside our multiverse, then drawing a species that has reached "enlightenment" into it must supposedly also protect that species in some way. The garden within - our multiverse - serves to produce species that can eventually be drawn into the Summed Psyche, helped along by the Gardeners, and as per the designs and Protocol of the Brahams who probably set up this system. Species that fail to become enlightened are purged by the Gardeners before they can break the walls from the inside. "selective pressure for resumption of panoptic function" means selective pressure to create species that can be added to the PANOPTIC Summed Psyche, which can view all points inside this multiverse prison. The Great Darkness techroom entry also suggests that our multiverse is a quarantine zone. And in the Great War info packet, the Shivan plan for dealing with the Terran-Vasudan conflict was to "retrajectorize for mass upload to safe strata", which I take to mean 'prepare the Terrans and Vasudans for entry into the Summed Psyche sanctuary'. Also this is metagaming, but I'm pretty sure we were promised revelations on the nature of subspace. Considering everything, the meaning of "external heuristic injection" can probably be answered. In the first case, during The Great War, it was to "mandate node severance fallback". That falls into the Vishnans plans, so my guess is this is the Vishnans beginning their plan for Earth, which lead to Ubuntu. In the second case, I'm less certain, "threshold inflamed but external heuristic injection HOLD.". I believe HOLD might be an interruption of this sentence, which means we know literally nothing about what this external injection is. If HOLD isn't an interjection, then the external injection was the strategic impulse that followed, which would seem to me to be some injection from some kind of entity that had more information than the local Shivans. Whether that's the Vishnans, who supposedly have some limited all-seeing power, or some higher Shivan authority I'm not sure. Finally, the Shivan Origin story had a biological metaphor for extraneous growth, in terms of their entry into this "worldline" and elements of the Capella story. "panreal exostosis and enmeshment IMMEDIATE across all volumes and layers; perimeter HOT; contextualization PARTIAL" Exostosis means some kind of unnatural protrubrance? It's possible the Shivan incursion into this "worldline" was only a small fraction of their whole. Also possible that the incursion into this reality doesn't refer to the Shivans at all, but to some a growth of this Great Darkness that they're fighting. Layers was a term the Vishnans used for an individual universe. "apatic anima disseminate: engineer transabyssal gate. strategic transitional event imminent. notify exostatic elements. cognicide contingency to activate." Again, we're talking about exostatic elements, elements outside the main body? Cognicide contingency is some kind of brain or thinking death fall-back-plan? It's possible this is a deployment as I speculated earlier, but also possible that it was a mass-suicide. Synthesize everything and the picture seems to be: The Shivans entered our reality from outside it. It's possible they have always been fighting this Great Darkness, an extra-reality threat, and one that has something to do with Nagari. Nagari sensitives can glimpse the realm in which the Shivan "war in heaven" is fought through the Dreamscape, which "blurs" the line between our reality - the world of "briefings and missions", and this Nagari-related extra-reality "of demons and portents". The Summed Psyche is probably a sanctuary from this threat, and exists in the "walls" of subspace which envelop our multiverse. It also serves as a way to observe our multiverse completely, a metaphorical panoptic prison. My guess is the foundations and rules governing it were set up by the Brahams. The Shivans believe the Brahams' strategy is failing for some reason, and are using Laporte as a component of a different or contingent strategy. edit: Adding one thing. During Universal Truth, when you're being observed by the Vishnans by them through their agent Samuel Bei, an EYE flashes on screen. Only the Vishnans refer to themselves as the Great Preservers. The Shivans don't use that terminology for the Vishnans, and importantly Ken gets interrupted when he tries to explain it. Ken later refers to the Shivans as "destroyers and preservers both". The War in Heaven is one of "stratagems and treachery and power". So the Shivans are actually The Preservers, and one treachery is the Vishnans are attempting to usurp them. The Vishnan job in the Brahams' design was to observe: see eye symbology, and the position of their Summed Psyche in a place where it can observe all space-time. And when the Shivans incurred, one of their objectives was "selective pressure for resumption of panoptic function". I think it's likely the result of that selective pressure was the Vishnans and their Summed Psyche. TheDemon fucked around with this message at 16:51 on Jan 11, 2013 |
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Jan 11, 2013 14:49
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Between that thread and what you just posted TheDemon, all I can say is 'wow'. The old horror trope of creatures that are attracted by knowing about them always creeps me out. It's interesting, because I know that I assumed that the 'malignant presence' that Noemi felt was the Dante. This is really interesting (and creepy) stuff. A few other things, information about some of the exotic words in that spoiler field. I took this from Wikipedia. Bahkti appears to be related to, or is a misspelling of, Bhakti, religious devotion in the form of active involvement of a devotee in worship of the divine. Within monotheistic Hinduism, it is the love felt by the worshipper towards the personal God, a concept expressed in Hindu theology as Ista-Devata (also as Svayam Bhagavan in Gaudiya Vaishnavism). Tapasya appears to be the personified form of Tapas in Sanskrit means "heat". In Vedic religion and Hinduism, it is used figuratively, denoting spiritual suffering, mortification or austerity, and also the spiritual ecstasy of a yogin or tapasa (a Vriddhi derivative meaning "a practitioner of austerities, an ascetic"). In the Rigveda, the word is connected with the Soma cult. The adjective tapasvin means "wretched, poor, miserable", but also "an ascetic, someone practicing austerities". Finally, and perhaps the most interesting one, is: Paramatma. In Hindu theology, Paramatman or Paramatma is the Absolute Atman or Supreme Soul or Spirit (also known as Supersoul or Oversoul) in the Vedanta and Yoga philosophies of India. Paramatman is the “Primordial Self” or the “Self Beyond” who is spiritually practically identical with the Absolute, identical with Brahman. Selflessness is the attribute of Paramatman, where all personality/individuality vanishes. Seems like that one in particular might be related to the Vishnans and their Psyche. Got a bit too much on my plate to talk about them in depth and theorise possibilities at the moment but, still, some more layers for you. And I'm thinking that the project that made the defector turn to Steele must be something relating to subspace. Perhaps some form of weapon?
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Jan 11, 2013 16:07
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I guess I should post a non-spoiler review of Blue Planet: Act 3. The campaign is really, really good. I think the main adjective I'd use to describe would be "atmospheric". The between-mission sequences were especially atmospheric. Every set piece set the tone really well, which culminated in a final mission that took all the buildup and smashed it right open. Not without flaws however. The constant commanding wears a bit thin. I can see it wearing even thinner for players who don't want to deal with that at all. Some of the mission directives were purposely unclear, but when they get cleared up mid-mission you can miss it. If you're really cynical you might describe the campaign as a series of unconnected gimmicks, but even if there's some truth to that I didn't mind. I would suggest though that in future acts you might want to reuse or partially reuse the better of these gimmicks? That way the campaign feels more consistent, mechanically. On each individual mission: Mission 1: Was extremely well-designed and set the tone for whole act superbly. A great balance of classic Freespace combined with War in Heaven combined with the command-heavy style in future Act 3 missions. I was really impressed by how well it introduced me to the act, while not overloading me. Mission 2: Loved it. I played it multiple times to try out different methods. Used a Mjol first. Then did it without anything but the comm system. Didn't overwhelm since it's a patience mission not a speed one, unless you try to do everything. I think some kind of clue that you don't actually need to do everything might be helpful to some players. Mission 3: I thought this was the weakest mission. You go in on your own, you have only a vague idea what needs to be done, once the clues are revealed to you, you have to decipher them and act on them immediately. Being in the Custos denies you the speed and flexibility you would use to do so in a normal mission. I never even bothered looking for the entry to the habitat. All I did was spam the 10s chaff constantly, snipe the poo poo out of the destroyers launchers and turrets which was dead easy thanks to freaking autoaim, maybe withdraw to repair once, then once I was allowed to go for the reactor just went for it. Mission accomplished. The rest of it I didn't even have to move as my flak & abilities annihilated everything. Mission 4: I really loved it. The big space battle had a big space battle feel to it. You could also tell that your actions and commands hugely affected the battle. But it was also a mission run purely on the command interface. That's something most players aren't prepared for and if you struggle to get involved with wingman management then this is probably a horrible mission for you. I think a little less flexibility could have gone a long way for those players. Mission 5: A bit of a gimmick? I didn't mind it... once, but wasn't really sure how or if my placement affected the end result. I replayed it after passing and found that waiting until the boarding party was over the first group of turrets before activating them all was probably a better strategy, but couldn't really think of any variant strategies. For a campaign that presents multiple ways to play, this mission felt linear. Mission 6: Your writers managed to trickle a massive bounty of information, but also managed to put most of it in a format that requires contemplation and deciphering, and they did so without being stupid about it. That's an amazing accomplishment. I'm a sucker for mysteries that both have an answer and require you to think to reach it, so this was by far my favorite mission. TheDemon fucked around with this message at 17:40 on Jan 11, 2013 |
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Jan 11, 2013 17:37
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Man, Delenda Est and Sunglare still punch me in the gut. "Give me something to call on." "...I think I love you." 
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Jan 13, 2013 11:47
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Got a new high-spec computer, got a new flight stick, the next chapter of War In Heaven is out, and I've somehow managed to avoid mousing over the preceding mountains of spoiler text. The next few days are going to be good. Edit: Aaaaand a random power surge has fried my power supply unit. I should not have tempted fate. Valcione fucked around with this message at 15:36 on Jan 17, 2013 |
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Jan 15, 2013 18:24
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I'm trying to get Blue Planet 2's new chapter up and running, but so far it doesn't seem to work. I'm on OSX, I've placed all the files in my Freespace directory and I have selected the new executable in WXLauncher. But as soon as I press play, I get an error message saying the program has run into a problem and stopped running. Does anyone know what to do?
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Jan 22, 2013 19:34
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Sobatchja Morda posted:I'm trying to get Blue Planet 2's new chapter up and running, but so far it doesn't seem to work. I'm on OSX, I've placed all the files in my Freespace directory and I have selected the new executable in WXLauncher. But as soon as I press play, I get an error message saying the program has run into a problem and stopped running. Does anyone know what to do? Could you try to run the debug version of the executable, then post the fs2_open.log file from FreeSpace2/data/?
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Jan 22, 2013 19:42
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What the hell? Trying to run the the debug, but the same thing keeps happening: Translation: "FS2)Open (debug) has quit unexpectedly, yada yada." Are any other mac-users getting this? Tried it on 10.5 and 10.6, but keep getting the same result. EDIT: removed my name from the original image...  VVVNo log file either, I'm afraid...VVV A Worrying Warlock fucked around with this message at 19:56 on Jan 22, 2013 |
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Jan 22, 2013 19:52
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Can you check your FreeSpace2/data/ directory to see if a new fs2_open.log file was written? Check the date modified. If so, please post or Pastebin it up. e: What kind of video hardware do you have? General Battuta fucked around with this message at 19:56 on Jan 22, 2013 |
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Jan 22, 2013 19:54
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My macbook has an NVIDEA GeForce 9400M, and my imac has an ATU Radeon HD 4850. I've tried running it both with and without the advanced mvp's, but that doesn't seem to change anything.
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Jan 22, 2013 20:24
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Simplest guess is that your hardware disagrees with the new deferred lighting code
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Jan 22, 2013 20:39
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Ah, that would be a shame. Well, I'll be switching to some new hardware in a month or so, so maybe it'll run on that. Or maybe I can ask my girlfriend veeeeeery nicely if I might "borrow" her laptop for a while  Thanks anyway!
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Jan 22, 2013 20:42
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We released a compatibility patch for people who are having trouble with the new deferred lighting code. Also I just wanted to post these screenshots - grabbed from a random mission rather than being staged or whatever - to show how far we've come since 1999. Maybe they'll be useful for OPs or whatever.     e: I should get that first one avatar sized! 
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Feb 10, 2013 00:06
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So I installed FS2O on a whim last week after randomly googling 'best space combat sim,' and surprise, it rules! I'm about 8 missions in or so and have a few simple questions: • Do you miss out on significant chunks of storyline if you choose to not do those optional undercover missions? I'm doing the first one now and not really in love with it. • Anyone know of a mod that puts some subtle cockpit elements on screen? I don't mind the 'pure HUD' look when I'm facing forward, but it begins to feel a little weird when I look left, right, or up and there's ~nothing~ on screen. Tried to google this and couldn't come up with much. How do I get my subtitles to look like this?? Love this font.
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Feb 11, 2013 15:55
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Pretty
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Feb 11, 2013 16:16
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Polo-Rican posted:So I installed FS2O on a whim last week after randomly googling 'best space combat sim,' and surprise, it rules! I'm about 8 missions in or so and have a few simple questions: Hi, I was just at your apartment quote:• Do you miss out on significant chunks of storyline if you choose to not do those optional undercover missions? I'm doing the first one now and not really in love with it. I would stick it out, the last mission in the second SOC loop is amazing and I'm not sure you can access it without doing the first loop. They also add a lot of depth to the story - if you pay careful attention you can get a glimpse of some of the behind-the-scenes machinations going on within the GTVA command structure. I'm really fond of the subtlety of FS2's writing. quote:• Anyone know of a mod that puts some subtle cockpit elements on screen? I don't mind the 'pure HUD' look when I'm facing forward, but it begins to feel a little weird when I look left, right, or up and there's ~nothing~ on screen. Tried to google this and couldn't come up with much. This is not super trivial to do, but the BSG mod has excellent cockpits. quote:How do I get my subtitles to look like this?? Love this font. It's only in Blue Planet but I could probably whip up something that would make the retail campaign look like that.
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Feb 11, 2013 16:35
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Polo-Rican posted:• Do you miss out on significant chunks of storyline if you choose to not do those optional undercover missions? I'm doing the first one now and not really in love with it.
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Feb 11, 2013 16:36
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Iunnrais posted:Yes. You will miss story AND really fun missions. I wouldn't call the sabotage mission a 'fun mission' 
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Feb 11, 2013 16:41
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Skyl3lazer posted:I wouldn't call the sabotage mission a 'fun mission' The sanest way to play that mission is to start wasting your teammates as soon as the mission begins. You are experiencing a comprehensive targeting and fire control malfunction Similarly the mission after that one is a HUGE pain in the rear end unless you arrange to let most of your wingmates get damaged/killed by the sentry guns.
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Feb 11, 2013 16:42
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Thanks, I'll stick out the loop. I was also confused because the game doesn't make it clear that you're still in the loop - at first I thought it was just one mission. I only realized I was still doing the undercover stuff when I noticed the 'exit loop' button during the second briefing. I think I'll stop sperging over keybindings / mods / settings for the moment and work my way through more of the campaign.
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Feb 11, 2013 16:43
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How the hell did I miss the Kvasir being in the latest BP release?
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Feb 11, 2013 17:19
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