|
Consider that, in the original pitch, attacking a shipping lane and hitting civilian freighters could've been a tense and rewarding use of your time. How well did you kill the runners to give you extra time before help comes, how far do you push your luck taking out targets as local militia and the lane wardens ramp up their attempts to take you out, and can you make it out before the False King or another heavyweight arrives to kick your teeth in?
|
#
?
Apr 13, 2017 20:20
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 25, 2024 04:57 |
|
|
wiegieman posted:Consider that, in the original pitch, attacking a shipping lane and hitting civilian freighters could've been a tense and rewarding use of your time. How well did you kill the runners to give you extra time before help comes, how far do you push your luck taking out targets as local militia and the lane wardens ramp up their attempts to take you out, and can you make it out before the False King or another heavyweight arrives to kick your teeth in? Isn't this a level right now minus that extra time mechanic? RBA Starblade fucked around with this message at 20:32 on Apr 13, 2017 |
|
#
?
Apr 13, 2017 20:23
|
|
|
HerpicleOmnicron5 posted:Same, so the game should've adopted the format that would've allowed that to shine better: Procedural mission generation like the original pitch. The missions themselves are all just "alright" with that last one in the video being the height of bloody tedium unless you're going after Traitor Flagships, and a certain other one coming up being a pain in the arse without the gap drive, again especially if you're going after Traitor Flagships. Or gone with the original pitch's gameplay, but handcraft multiple systems(with some random elements) to execute them in. Say, throw in four systems that it takes five hours or so to "beat" a piece, if you're aiming to do it in anywhere near a "complete" fashion, liberating/incinerating every world and traitor, etc., and you've got a 20-hour game. In fact, I'd say that if the game was going to be that short from start to end, then it should've relied more on random generation to make multiple replays interesting. Or gone with some sort of roguelike system where getting blown up would've restarted you with a differently-structured campaign(and maybe a few carry-over unlocks). Any of these sound better than what we actually got. Of course, it's hard to tell how close they actually were to the original pitch. Could've been they eventually found they just weren't able to pull it off well and then used "uhhhhh, QA told us to change it!" as an excuse to swap to something they were more confident of actually being able to execute. Because the original pitch did sound pretty ambitious for a small group.
|
|
#
?
Apr 13, 2017 20:28
|
|
|
PurpleXVI posted:Of course, it's hard to tell how close they actually were to the original pitch. Could've been they eventually found they just weren't able to pull it off well and then used "uhhhhh, QA told us to change it!" as an excuse to swap to something they were more confident of actually being able to execute. Because the original pitch did sound pretty ambitious for a small group. Kairo had made the campaign, the second pitch. It was playable. He streamed it on multiple occasions. The original pitch wasn't actually that ambitious, it's pretty much what we got now. RBA Starblade posted:Isn't this a level right now minus that extra time mechanic? Yes, but the mission doesn't matter. You just complete it, and that has no bearing on the rest of the game, plus the missions are far too easy so long as you aren't going for those later stage targets like the Traitor Flagships. RBA Starblade posted:Cool, I never played it actually but I don't think it's a problem two of that kind of game exists now. The game's made by one guy over years, I think not having the output of Lucasarts is forgivable. That's not the problem. The problem is a game that is now old enough to drink in America has more content than a brand new game, a game which has had plenty of time to build said content but because Kairo scrapped what he had worked on for two years after re-working what he had built for the two years before that and then came to Early Access half a year after gutting the core of the game, we got a product lacking in quantity. My argument isn't that I wish we got the procedural content. My argument is that the current content is not the equal to the effort put into that procedural content. This is the best loving space (fighter) combat out there, and we only get two hours of it. That's a damned shame regardless of what you think.
|
|
#
?
Apr 13, 2017 21:00
|
|
|
quote:That's not the problem. The problem is a game that is now old enough to drink in America has more content than a brand new game, a game which has had plenty of time to build said content but because Kairo scrapped what he had worked on for two years after re-working what he had built for the two years before that and then came to Early Access half a year after gutting the core of the game, we got a product lacking in quantity. By accounts what was gutted wasn't fun. He wasn't able to execute that in a satisfactory way so he ditched it. It's too bad but it happens. quote:That's a damned shame regardless of what you think. Sure, I just don't think tossing in something that's lower quality or boring just for padding is a good idea. Did he ever say why he released with what he did instead of more missions in this structure? RBA Starblade fucked around with this message at 21:35 on Apr 13, 2017 |
|
#
?
Apr 13, 2017 21:30
|
|
|
Harbinger, Part 3 Traitor Admiral Bergautur - Eh. Traitor Admiral Alfmundur - Ah. Princess Admiral Du Moch - gently caress it, they were all pretty damned similar. House of the Dying Sun - Upgrades  We've seen this screen a lot, but I've never spent much time on it. This is the upgrade system within House of the Dying Sun, from left to right: TOP ROW: Energy Shields: Developed millenia ago, energy shields function by disrupting quantum fields around the vessel. Energy shields are extremely effective against high-velocity ballistic weapons, making them popular defensive measures against pirates. Juggernaut Armor: Highly effective armor. (+50% max hull vitality, -70% afterburner power (fighters), -30% max speed (capitals), -10% incoming AOE damage) Armor Piercing Rounds: Rounds ignite a nanosecond after impact, which allow them to burrow into heavy armor before exploding. The effect is minimal when striking small, lightly armored craft. +75% bonus damage to structures, capital ships, containers. Shield Piercing Rounds: Our priests have discovered that coating our rounds with plasma from a dying star will further their effectiveness against enemy shield systems. )+250% shield damage.) Bomber Chassis: (Fighters Only) The fighter's outer hull is modified to house additional heavy rounds. (+1 heavy ammo) SECOND ROW: Shield Extender: Requires Shield System Upgrade - Expands the target vessel's shield battery capacity but makes the shield slower to recharge. Stun time is the interval between taking damage and when the shield will begin recharging. (+100% max energy, -20% recharge rate, +100% recharge stun time) Carapace Armor: Only one of Rhal'tuum IV's apex predators has ever been brought back for study, and only then because it was already dead. Advances in light impact armor can be attributed to this magnificent creature. (+20% max hull vitality, +10% afterburner power (fighters), -40% max speed (capitals), -95% incoming AOE damage) Modified Cooling intake: Engine housing has been modified to expose more surface area to the frigid black without sacrificing defense. (+30% fighter engine thrust, +75% capital engine thrust) Betrayer Module: This upgrade allows our interceptors to capture enemy sentry guns by flying within a short distance. (Campaign Only) Eventually, the sentry's AI defense systems recover and destroy the compromised cannon. Autocannon Drone: Autocannon drones excel versus light targets but they are highly susceptible to hostile flak. (+1 Autocannon drone) BOTTOM ROW: Flak Drone: Flak Drones are engineered to provide point defense coverage versus small targets such as missiles or enemy drones. As a secondary function, they are used to shoot down escape pods. (+1 Flak drone) Repair Drone: Repair drones seal breaches by melting pre-applied compounds on the outer hull. Drone AI will prioritise its owner's target before switching over to repair-at-will mode. (+1 Repair drone) Kamikaze Chassis: A fighter may be modified to house impact gel below its armor plating. When the chassis crumples, the gel activates and ignites the payload. (+2,500 fighter collision damage, +3,000 damage per heavy round, -80% max hull vitality) Gap Drive: Fighters with Gap Drives may blink to a target. Engines are modified to expend bursts of energy which project gravity fields around the vessel, causing exploitable instability in space-time. USAGE: Face your intended target and double-tap the warp/movement ability button. Gap Drive Reset: Gap Drive instabilities may be reignited by focusing dispersion arrays toward a nearby engine meltdown. (Gap drive resets when fighter scores kill) Every ship class can carry two upgrades, but only two upgrades. And you cannot specify which ships get what upgrades, its the same for the whole class. So you can't have a pair of support destroyers and an attacker, or a kamikaze bomber interceptor and a pair of escorts. It's all or nothing. An over simplification in the name of streamlining, a conscious decision, or a development oversight? I'd like to know what you all think it is. E: also youtube randomly cut out the first 5 seconds of the video which is always fun, thanks youtube HerpicleOmnicron5 fucked around with this message at 23:46 on Apr 15, 2017 |
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2017 23:39
|
|
|
God, I wish you could set at least ONE of the fighters to a different loadout. Especially due to the mods and weapons that are cool but either a waste or outright detrimental if put on every single ship/in the hands of the AI. I would use stuff like Betrayer module or kamikaze a hell of a lot more often if I could limit it to one ship.
|
|
#
?
Apr 16, 2017 01:26
|
|
|
A wrinkle occurs to me. If you are fighting the Dragon then you have already lost.HerpicleOmnicron5 posted:Supersensibility. How can it be? The Dragon proceeds exactly where it must, as if it has practiced the fight a hundred times before this first. The Dragon has practiced this battle a hundred times, remembering all the ways in which it could have failed. The fact that the battle is now actually happening, in reality, means that The Dragon won it.
|
|
#
?
Apr 18, 2017 10:20
|
|
|
Harbinger, Part 4 Traitors Prince Aum and KINGSCLONE B1: Nothing here of note other than Aum having a jammer frigate and us fighting a clone of the "King." House of the Dying Sun - Writing This one is phoned in considering I'm really running out of material to discuss the differences between HotDS and Enemy Starfighter/its evolution. I just rediscovered through trawling through the old thread that General Battuta (Who has worked on Blue Planet War in Heaven, a Freespace 2 mod,considered to be one of the best FS2 campaigns) is credited for writing the Codex and stuff. If so, then he's pretty drat good at what he does. Regarding the poll last time, it's interesting that a majority of people blame streamlining for the limits on the upgrade system. I'm actually of the opinion that it is a conscious decision rather than simplification. In Kairo's devblogs he often mentioned communicating information to the player as vital, and I personally believe that he found it difficult to communicate the different loadouts of each ship without a considerable amount of work going into the decision, which is why I think it was a conscious limitation of the scope of the game. Also it would make the game far too easy to exploit through cheesy strategies, like hanging back in a tank-like command interceptor with kamikazes killing assassination targets in a single pass, which makes an already easy game easier. Ignore the many defeats in this video and the ones before, incompetence does not make the game harder, only longer.
|
|
#
?
Apr 19, 2017 22:12
|
|
|
Harbinger, Finale Lord Commodore Naybard, Kingsclone A1, The Traitor King: Did I ever tell you the meaning of insanity? Doing the same fight over and over again expecting it to be more interesting. Still, that's us done with fighting traitor flagships, and that's us done with the tutorial of the game. Time for it to get real. Enemy Starfighter: Lineage You may recall from the previous episode, we had a glimpse of "House Vykarr" being the origin of the dreadnought. Unfortunately, this is an old mechanic I know very little of, and Kairo has dumped all of the old blog posts from his website for the game, making searching take a little longer than before. A shame, because his old blog posts were really insightful and interesting and now they're harder to access.  It's hard to make out what is said on that screen, harder still to figure out how it relates to the campaign, but I recall that one noble house started with shields and the other presumably did not at one stage. This would be an initial choice to determine starting loadouts, and would provide even more character to your empire. In terms of writing, its a good thing that was changed to "the Dragon", but its a shame that degree of character via lineage does not extend to at least the capital ships outside of that one dreadnought. Next up will be the Dragon difficulty playthrough, recorded in VR, commentated in post. After that, I'll be tackling the challenge mode a few times with several different equipment loadouts. Any two upgrades can be chosen for each class of ship. Priorities given to loadouts that you name.
|
|
#
?
Apr 21, 2017 15:21
|
|
|
I await with baited breath to see what the last choice is on the hardest difficulty.
|
|
#
?
Apr 22, 2017 17:42
|
|
|
It could still have been The Dragon leading whichever fleet was purging the infidels, but you could have the noble houses competing for the honor of dispatching this week's harbinger fleet.
|
|
#
?
Apr 22, 2017 20:40
|
|
|
Samovar posted:I await with baited breath to see what the last choice is on the hardest difficulty. Well, bad news because the VR version does not display many elements such as mission names, the loadout screen, the ending text, so it will take some time and editing to make things look right. It'll be next week that I put up the Dragon VR run.
|
|
#
?
Apr 23, 2017 13:43
|
|
|
Dragon Mode (VR): (Commentary) (No-Commentary) This time joined by JamieTheD in co-commentary. House of the Dying Sun - Windows 10 Creators Update: This game has had a major issue highlighted to me by the Windows 10 Creators update forcing me to reinstall Windows to run DirectX 11. You enter challenge mode with your fleet you amass through the campaign, with upgrades you unlock through the campaign. It isn't a separate mode, it's latched on to the main show. With my saves lost by the reinstall, I've lost all my upgrades and all the ships. I've played through the game 8 times now, I won't be playing through it again. Because of that, there will be no silly builds Challenge mode videos. Apologies.
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2017 00:15
|
|
|
Dragon Mode (VR) Finale: (Commentary) (No-Commentary) Once again joined by JamieTheD in co-commentary. House of the Dying Sun - The End: Kairo posted:A neat idea, but I really really really really want to close the game out nicely and work on something else. Something not space. Signing up for this much more space might break me. Kairo posted:Yeah, it's really annoying, and a lot of it is joysticks. Never again. Kairo posted:Gah. I upgraded my middleware to solve some of these throttle problems on the nutso CH/Thrustmaster sticks. It doesn't seem like it worked anyways, and it might have caused other issues. House of the Dying Sun came out and was highly regarded. It was a good game. Best in VR, but great on desktop as well. But it was a more casual affair than the X-Wings and Freespaces before it, not built for the joystick oriented crowd, but since it was a space game of course it needed joystick support or else people would go nuts. This has put off a great space developer from making more space games, from potentially reaching the wider scope before the linear campaign or putting out expansions to make use of those wonderful assets. But hang on: Kairo - Twitter, April 6th posted:Today marks 2 months working on the current prototype. Amazing how much faster it all goes when you've built these systems before. He's still doing a similar game that he can build from the skeleton of HotDS and Enemy Starfighter. I for one am greatly excited. Thanks for joining me in taking a look at this flawed gem of a game and its many quirks and developmental issues, and celebrating the successes of the game's feel and aesthetics. I'll be following the development of his new game with just as much attention, and hope that when it comes time to LP that there'll be more to gush over and less to criticise.
|
|
#
?
May 1, 2017 20:23
|
|
|
Well, that last option was... Very unnerving.
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2017 22:51
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 25, 2024 04:57 |
|
|
That was definitely worth the trip. Thanks for taking us along for that, and I'm actually impressed the VR capture worked as well here as it did. Also, um, thanks for the shout-out, JamieTheD, I'm glad that left an impression!  I see you've already charged onwards to your next project: good luck!
|
|
#
?
May 4, 2017 09:00
|
|
