Tour of Duty

minor storyline; need a little help

I've had the ideas for this plug laying around quite a while--everything has been written up for a couple months in fact, but I didn't start working on it until I saw Nebula: D.O.A, which inspired me to start this plug as somewhat of a supplement to the Federation storyline and, when it is released, to the Nebula: DOA storyline.

Tour of Duty is a highly branchable minor storyline available only to new pilots. The player can optionally join the Federation Navy for a short tour of duty on the Eastern Auroran Front, being promised large incentives at the end of the campaign when he/she can be discharged should he/she wish. The storyline will last between 5 and 8 missions, but I'll have to write around 20 because each mission is different depending on the results of the previous mission and depending on pure chance. The player's failiures will not end the campaign, but will change the course of it, and likewise, successes will be highly visible.

So far, most of the new Federation ship variants and outfits have been added as well as a new Auroran ship variant. I'm about 3/4 done with ships and outfits, and 1/4 of the missions have been written. I need help working on the missions, however. I can do all the writing and mission bits, but my EVNEW is buggy and deletes the last character of a desc every time it is opened and doesn't save certain pieces of data in the misn resources such as where the special ships will spawn in system.

@coral, on Aug 26 2007, 05:43 PM, said in Tour of Duty:

a supplement to the Federation storyline and, when it is released, to the Nebula: DOA storyline.

Don't worry, we already talked.

Alright, I have a problem on a mission. EVNEW automatically makes blank the field for where the special ships will spawn when I exited the window for editing missions. So my question is, if the field is blank, do the ships not spawn at all? Right now, the ships aren't spawning, and I need to what the problem is.

@coral, on Aug 26 2007, 06:34 PM, said in Tour of Duty:

Alright, I have a problem on a mission. EVNEW automatically makes blank the field for where the special ships will spawn when I exited the window for editing missions. So my question is, if the field is blank, do the ships not spawn at all? Right now, the ships aren't spawning, and I need to what the problem is.

Hmmm... Try filling it in and see what happens. It can't hurt.

Alright, here's how one of my missions is going to be setup:

Basically, it'll take 6 or so misns to do some of the major engagements. There is 1 misn for each formation of enemy ships, such as a cruiser pair or a Carrier or a group of fighters, as well as a misn for allied formations. Each formation that is destroyed isn't going to appear in the next misn. Regardless, the player is not some sort of superhero--the player will be flying a light fighter commanding a small squadron with the objective of annihilating specific targets during large engagements. For example, in one mission, the player flies an Anaconda with three Anacondas and three Vipers as escorts with the objective of taking out a single carrier in an Auroran battlegroup. However, the player can optionally destroy other ships as well so that they have a better change in upcoming missions, but the player has to complete the said objective.

The player will also have to make judgments--one mission, for example, has the player ordered to shoot down a cargo ship suspected of espionage. Unfortunately, it could be a passenger ship, so you have to decide whether to shoot it down or return to base. Or you can ignore the problem and stay at base.

I'm also going to be adding afterburners to enemy fighters to prevent that Monty Python, and the Auroran fighters will have at least a few tricks up their sleeves. I'll get some screenshots of the AEGIS Variant Patol Boat and Rautherion Variant Anaconda up soon.

@coral, on Aug 27 2007, 04:06 PM, said in Tour of Duty:

Alright, here's how one of my missions is going to be setup:

Basically, it'll take 6 or so misns to do some of the major engagements. There is 1 misn for each formation of enemy ships, such as a cruiser pair or a Carrier or a group of fighters, as well as a misn for allied formations. Each formation that is destroyed isn't going to appear in the next misn. Regardless, the player is not some sort of superhero--the player will be flying a light fighter commanding a small squadron with the objective of annihilating specific targets during large engagements. For example, in one mission, the player flies an Anaconda with three Anacondas and three Vipers as escorts with the objective of taking out a single carrier in an Auroran battlegroup. However, the player can optionally destroy other ships as well so that they have a better change in upcoming missions, but the player has to complete the said objective.

The player will also have to make judgments--one mission, for example, has the player ordered to shoot down a cargo ship suspected of espionage. Unfortunately, it could be a passenger ship, so you have to decide whether to shoot it down or return to base. Or you can ignore the problem and stay at base.

I'm also going to be adding afterburners to enemy fighters to prevent that Monty Python, and the Auroran fighters will have at least a few tricks up their sleeves. I'll get some screenshots of the AEGIS Variant Patol Boat and Rautherion Variant Anaconda up soon.

Wow. And this is going to mesh with my plugin? I'm impressed. And excited.

Wow, this sounds incredibly awesome. I'm really impressed at the amount of time you're putting into the little details such as "here's your target, but here's a bunch of other ones you can kill too if you want," which will require one mission per extra ship, will it not?

I'm ultra excited for this! Nice innovative use of the engine!

So far, here's what I have to show for my work:

Quote

You exit your vessel quietly. A Federation marine in full battle dress uniform waves to you, and gestures you to move toward him. You oblige. "Welcome, Lieutenant," he says, as he glances at a clipboard. "You've been assigned to Commander Kansafel. That's mighty unfortunate--Commander Kansafel is as bad as it gets," says the marine in full honesty. "You should report to his office in the outfitter doubletime before he throws a fit."

Your heart sinks.

"Whats wrong with Commander Kansafel?" you ask.

"He'd prefer not talk about it, but what I hear is that he served on the Polaran front about five years back. He was one of the top aces, so I hear, having downed several Mantas in his F-29. Unfortunately, one day, then-Captain Kansafel was--"

"Captain?" you interrupt him. "You mean he was demoted?"

"Well, yes. I'll get to that. Captain Kansafel was noticed by his superiors. They selected him to command a mission with Detachment 17," he continues. You are unsure of whether you should believe him at this point--Detachment 17 is only a rumor. "Twelve Scoutships with cargo bays full of soldiers were to penetrate the Polaran border and assault a Polaris scientific station. A suicidal mission, of course, but somehow four scoutships managed to penetrate the border, meaning one thousand soldiers transported. They boarded a station which was unarmed according to scanners. They met no resistance for a short while--and then suddenly, they started dying," says the marine. He looks somewhat sad, looking down at his feet.

"Dying of what?" you ask. The man looks at you.

"Commander Kansafel says he saw things that if he told, nobody would believe," whispers the man. "The Commander was the only one to escape the station alive. When he returned to New England to report to the Bureau, folks would ask him why only he survived and made references to cowardice. He would grab them and hiss to them that 'they didn't know what war was'. The final straw was when he told then-Fleet Captain Raczak that 'to defeat a platoon of Aurorans in hand-to-hand combat' is nothing. That's how he got demoted," finishes the marine. You believe him. Raczak was famous for having killed twenty Aurorans with his bare hands when his ship crashed on an Auroran planet. But what did Commander Kansafel face? You wonder.

"You should hurry along to the outfitter," the marine reminds you.

This post has been edited by Coral : 27 August 2007 - 04:14 PM

I like! I notice the reference to detachment 17. Keep up the good work!

@coral, on Aug 27 2007, 02:12 PM, said in Tour of Duty:

<Mission Desc.>

Bloody...AWESOME! Makes me wonder what happened to him myself.

Keep it up, Coral. I can see you know what you're doing.

I can see that this is going to be good. I'm glad it's affiliated with MY plug. Wow. Awesome writing!

Me like.

That's pretty bloody awesome. I'd like to make one suggestion though about the reference to the Bureau. Assuming this is just some Marine, the odds that he would know that the Bureau is the true ruling body of the Federation is probably pretty small. The vast majority of the Feds, if they even know about the Bureau's existence, probably just think of it as a spy organization. It might be better to substitute "Federation" for "Bureau." Just a thought.

But still, awesome!

Or "Fleet Command", or something like that, given that they're part of the Navy.

And Coral, a bit of advice: if you're really going to make this an expansion for DOA, well, not to doubt Cosmic_Nuisance, but the fact is even minor plug-ins with small storylines don't all get completed. And it's a given that if you make a plug-in for another plug-in, less people will be aware of it and use it, unless it's bundled with the "parent" plug itself (like the ARPIA2 Variants & ShieldBubbles, for example). Basically, either team up with Cosmic_Nuisance so DOA gets done and is released as one package, with your storyline included in the main plug, or focus on getting it done separately. If the latter, then you can always make changes to the control bits used and so on once you're done/once DOA is done.

Second piece of advice, and that's for both Cosmic & you: even small storylines take up space. In Arpia1, for example, I used up 64 mďsn slots for a 43 -mission storyline (and basically the biggest number of mďsns per mission was 7, for the "Traitor Mission"). Know that there is a limit to the number of mďsn slots, especially if you plan on doing like ARPIA2, i.e. making it a real expansion, that doesn't modify/replace the stock Nova scenario (and which therefore leaves the other storylines in a playable state).
So I know you're both planning something small, but make sure for example that Cosmic "uses" (i.e. reserves for use) mďsns 919 to 1000, and Coral "uses" mďsns 1001 and above. Because you have no idea how many resources you might end up using, especially Coral if you plan to do many missions with detailed target options.

Coral, I'm saying that because you will indeed (as you know) need one mďsn per ship if you want this to work as you intend ("if you destroy this warship, it's optional, but it'll help you later on"). And know that the maximum number of simultaneous mďsns is 16. So make sure you have enough mďsn resources

Now, I'm sure you both already know all this, but it's best to fully grasp what it implies

Oh, my plug can standalone, too. Basically, continuing into Detachment 17 is an option, and the player can also go into the Federation and Rebel storylines, or decide to end his/her career once the specified Tour of Duty has ended. Anyways, there wont be one misn per ship, but one misn per formation. Two cruisers might make up a formation, or 8-10 fighters. As for what the marine said--it's all just a rumor, huh? Heheh. The report to the Bureau I added because the mission was an intelligence mission, even if it was supposed to involve 3,000 soldiers.

I plan to get at least 5 missions with the campaign feature done on this, minimum, so maybe if I stop working on it, someone else can see what I've done and use it. If I want to do everything that I plan, it will take arond 50 misns, but to get the planned Auroran campaign in should take around 20. Unfortunately, most people will probably reload pilots after failing their mission, but oh well. I want the player to have a lot of choice. Will the player assassinate his commander to take his place, etc.

Work on the plug goes slow because of the frustrations of Vista. I have to check 3 or 4 different folders to make sure that the right version is loaded correctly, and sometimes, EVNEW doesn't save when I tell it to.

Also, Cosmic's is more like thirty missions, whereas mine is 5-8 depending on the player's actions, so mine is really more of an addon. Thanks for the advice, though Pace. Best to hear from the master, no?

@pace, on Aug 28 2007, 02:15 AM, said in Tour of Duty:

not to doubt Cosmic_Nuisance, but the fact is even minor plug-ins with small storylines don't all get completed.

No offense taken. Also keep in mind that my string will eventually replace the Fed string, so there will be unused mďsn slots, and a lot of 'em. Later incarnations may well replace the other storylines (e.g. "Defect to the Aurorans"). Tis may not seem fair to people who want to play a storyline, but think about it. If you want to do the real thing, take the plugin out of the plugins folder. It's that simple.

@coral, on Aug 28 2007, 02:55 PM, said in Tour of Duty:

Best to hear from the master, no?

Man, I've never heard of that person. Is he/she any good?

@cosmic_nusiance, on Aug 28 2007, 05:37 PM, said in Tour of Duty:

Also keep in mind that my string will eventually replace the Fed string, so there will be unused mďsn slots, and a lot of 'em. Later incarnations may well replace the other storylines (e.g. "Defect to the Aurorans"). Tis may not seem fair to people who want to play a storyline, but think about it. If you want to do the real thing, take the plugin out of the plugins folder. It's that simple.

Meh. It's easier for people who play one storyline and then want to see what the other storyline says. Once you've found a plug-in you like, you rarely take it out of the Nova Plug-ins folder. Sure, I'm talking for lazy people such as myself (when have I ever taken ARPIA2 out of my plug-ins folder?).
That said, where is the advantage in replacing the Fed storyline (as opposed to using free mďsn slots)?

@pace, on Aug 28 2007, 01:01 PM, said in Tour of Duty:

Man, I've never heard of that person. Is he/she any good?
Meh. It's easier for people who play one storyline and then want to see what the other storyline says. Once you've found a plug-in you like, you rarely take it out of the Nova Plug-ins folder. Sure, I'm talking for lazy people such as myself (when have I ever taken ARPIA2 out of my plug-ins folder?).
That said, where is the advantage in replacing the Fed storyline (as opposed to using free mďsn slots)?

I mean it will replace it once all the mission slots are taken up. After all, Arpia 2 uses every single available one.

Not every single one available to plug-in designers, as I discovered recently

(winkwinkARPIA2.0.4nudgenudge)

@pace, on Aug 28 2007, 01:09 PM, said in Tour of Duty:

Not every single one available to plug-in designers, as I discovered recently

(winkwinkARPIA2.0.4nudgenudge)

?? You can use MORE?!?!?!? How?