New custom mission released!

Kevin Caccamo said:
To access the mission, go into the mission simulator in the tech room. You also have to select "Single missions" instead of "Campaign missions." The mission is called "Convoy Intercept"
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Wow, thank you for the quick reply! I found the mission, and was able to view the Rapier II in the tech room, so I know it has loaded properly.

Sorry to ask what you may think is a simple question, but I am confused about the 'normal map' situation. How do I know if I am or am not able to view the mission in the best possible way? You mentioned making sure graphic drivers are updated...what should I check?

Thank you very much...
 
ELTEE said:
Sorry to ask what you may think is a simple question, but I am confused about the 'normal map' situation. How do I know if I am or am not able to view the mission in the best possible way? You mentioned making sure graphic drivers are updated...what should I check?
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Ok... I will post some comparison pics tomorrow so you'll be able to see the difference between a ship with normal maps and a ship without normal maps.
 
Here are two comparison pics for a Rapier 2 with and without normal maps. The first picture is with normal maps and the second picture is without normal maps. Both of these screenshots have the exact same camera angle and position.

Normal maps are supposed to make models with a low polycount look a lot more detailed... And they do their job really well. It's really a trick of the light...
 

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hmm, I'm definitely not seeing the more detailed of the two. What should I check in my graphics driver to see if I'm up to date?
 
You can also check if you got eather the normal map checkbox selected in the launcher menu or set it by yourself with adding "-normal" to the custom flags.
Also you have to see what build you are useing . The older Prologue exe dosn't support the normalmaps.
 
Don't forget (although by now a majority already have) you'll need DirectX 9 or better hardware spec'ed video card.
 
gevatter Lars said:
You can also check if you got eather the normal map checkbox selected in the launcher menu or set it by yourself with adding "-normal" to the custom flags.
Also you have to see what build you are useing . The older Prologue exe dosn't support the normalmaps.
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What happens if I do have the older prologue.exe? I put in the new file from the FS forum...shouldn't that fix the situation?
 
Not directly. You have to see that the right exe is selected in the launcher or it will still start with the old one.
Second thing is that you have to check if the normalflag is selected. Features tab, graphics, check "enable normal maps". That will enable the normalmaps.
 
gevatter Lars said:
Not directly. You have to see that the right exe is selected in the launcher or it will still start with the old one.
Second thing is that you have to check if the normalflag is selected. Features tab, graphics, check "enable normal maps". That will enable the normalmaps.
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How do you inform the launcher which .exe to run? You can do this and still play Prologue?

Sorry for the simpleton questions - thanks for the help!!
 
ELTEE said:
How do you inform the launcher which .exe to run? You can do this and still play Prologue?

Sorry for the simpleton questions - thanks for the help!!
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There is a browse button at the top of the launcher. You can select which build of FS2_Open you want to run from there.
 
Whew! That mission was quite a blast. Lots of fighters to test the Rapier out on and a couple of cap ships to mix it up too. The wingmen were spectacularly useless though, Bravo Flight getting killed almost immediately. They also didn't bomb the cap ships, and the Rapier is simply trash against them (as expected). I think their AI was bugged or something, because they were flying AWAY from the combat at some ridiculously slow speed. The way around this is to use the wingmen commands to force them to fly to you or attack the cap ships. The cruiser goes down a lot easier when they use their heavy weapons :P.

The rapier does fly beautifully for a dogfighter. All weapon systems on that thing are perfect for decimating the swarms you face.
 
I agree with S.ilver. Good enough to satisfy the bloodthirsty. :) But yes, the bombers were all over the place. It looks like they don't have initial orders. Likewise, the enemy convoy needs orders as well. The capships were stationary. I'd suggest giving them waypoints to follow. And the enemy fighters seem to just be hanging around the jump node in clusters instead of actively defending the convoy. So they could use initial orders, probably guard the transports.

Also, if you do use ship guardian, I'd suggest using guardian threshold instead cause it looks a bit ridiculous seeing ships flying around with 1% hull :p. And, umm, maybe subsytem guardian for engines so they player won't have to see a swarm of darkets uselessly hitting a disabled bow. I've not seen this happen. You may have already thought of it. But just in case. ^_^

Another thing you may want to consider is that most fighters are not jump capable. So perhaps, instead of having them jump in along with the convoy, have them launch from the light destroyer. I don't know how you'd FRED that though. Would you say the fighters are docked initially with the light destroyer then have them undock at some point?
 
Unregistered said:
Another thing you may want to consider is that most fighters are not jump capable. So perhaps, instead of having them jump in along with the convoy, have them launch from the light destroyer. I don't know how you'd FRED that though. Would you say the fighters are docked initially with the light destroyer then have them undock at some point?
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I see two possibilities. If the player is far away at that point you could simply have fighters appear without warp effect, let's say, 300m away from a destroyer. Otherwise you could simply have them arrive from a hangar bay instead of hyperspace (e.g. Docking bay on Unknown Contact X). :)

subsystem-guardian-treshold should be used with caution. I am fairly sure it is broken in the supplied build. This sexp was fixed mere weeks ago. Using it will crash the mission on start up. I am not sure if the fix is in the HEAD branch though, so a workaround would be

every-time-argument
<list of fighters>
<
subsystem (engine/weapons)
50%
set-subsystem-strength
subsystem (engine/weapons)
100%

For heavy fighters/bombers you would need to use set-subsystem-strength twice (engine01/engine02 subsystem)
 
Apparently, I found a technical problem with the mission. If you experience a Crash to Desktop once the mission finishes loading, try switching to OpenGL mode.
 
I have a problem with the Rapier model. It appears to be black and white striped. Does anyone know what causes this or how it can be fixed?
 
I heard of this problem at Hard Light Productions, but I can't particularly remember where to find the solution. I'll get back to you later.

EDIT: You may be having problems with forceware drivers. Check this HLP thread for more information, since he is having the same problem.
 
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