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Leviathan99's Debut Live Server Episode: "Currents Turned Awry"
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Member, NoReporting Posts: 178,019 Arc User
Mission Name: Currents Turned Awry
Project ID: ST-HU3VYIP77
Faction: Federation
Levels: 41+
In short, this one has a decent number of puzzles and gimmicks. It has plenty of Trek references (some dialogs have over 50 variations). Your first playthrough may take some time (and I'll guarantee there's enough easter eggs that you can go back and find new things) but it's also probably a pretty efficient way to grind Borg.
It's probably the most "fan pleasing" mission I could come up with at this point. Lots of alternate ways to do things. LOTS of Trek references. A familiar ship. Characters who might seem familiar without violating the EULA.
It's definitely an episode in the Brannon Braga "anomaly of the week" school of Trek. That said, I think there's some humor and heart underneath the references and Treknobabble.
I've playtested it to be pretty robust but some of the tricks I'm using are bound to cause issues in some weird multiplayer scenarios. (Terran altering will always cause this problem without forced "teleports" to keep all team members synched or client-side/player-based phasing so that terrain and enemies only spawn for someone at the right progression point.) That said, while I think you probably can get lost in some of the text mazes, you'll find that I have failsafes to keep you on track if you wander too far.
Let me know what you think!
Project ID: ST-HU3VYIP77
Faction: Federation
Levels: 41+
In short, this one has a decent number of puzzles and gimmicks. It has plenty of Trek references (some dialogs have over 50 variations). Your first playthrough may take some time (and I'll guarantee there's enough easter eggs that you can go back and find new things) but it's also probably a pretty efficient way to grind Borg.
It's probably the most "fan pleasing" mission I could come up with at this point. Lots of alternate ways to do things. LOTS of Trek references. A familiar ship. Characters who might seem familiar without violating the EULA.
It's definitely an episode in the Brannon Braga "anomaly of the week" school of Trek. That said, I think there's some humor and heart underneath the references and Treknobabble.
I've playtested it to be pretty robust but some of the tricks I'm using are bound to cause issues in some weird multiplayer scenarios. (Terran altering will always cause this problem without forced "teleports" to keep all team members synched or client-side/player-based phasing so that terrain and enemies only spawn for someone at the right progression point.) That said, while I think you probably can get lost in some of the text mazes, you'll find that I have failsafes to keep you on track if you wander too far.
Let me know what you think!
Post edited by Unknown User on
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This part worries me. Does this mean you have to kill alot of Borg drones, or it there a way around that?
There are ways around most of the ground combat, either through luck or skill or letting friendly NPCs do work for you. Once you know what to do or not to do, the mission gets dramatically shorter on replay.
Your first time through, it may take about as long as a Featured Episode and you might find it challenging. I can get through it in about 10 minutes, because I know all the tricks, some of which come through exploring dialogue.
There is, for example, a password you need to proceed at one point. Getting it may require killing 15 Borg (3 groups). If you already know it, you don't have to. If you're lucky and pick the right consoles, you don't have to. If you know which consoles are safe to use, you don't have to.
The space combat is less optional but it should be pretty challenging if you make the wrong choices.
EDIT: Okay. Finished the mission, trying to avoid spoilers. It was excellent. I absolutely loved it, even with the glitches (I was forced to reload once after an option to consult my bridge officers lead to the contact vanishing). The transitions were excellent, the dialogue was excellent and the characterization was good. Optional information was plentiful and easy to obtain, and the "puzzles" were well done. I can see I'm going to have to play through at least once more to see options I couldn't take on my first play-through.
Thanks! Do you remember where in the mission you were when the contact disappeared?
I tried to lead everyone to the same places but I'll caution you that two parts may be a bit weird if people don't stick fairly close together, which is what happens with massive terrain editing.
On the Holodeck, the Admiral offered me the chance to confer with my BOs, then vanished. I had to reload, because it wouldn't allow me to advance... In addition, it was cool fighting alongside Captain Rozhenko on the bridge, but the Borg wound up killing him right in front of me during the battle, which was a little weird.
Are you planning a sequel?
*goes off to play again, to find out what happens on the other dialogue options*
Huh. That's interesting. I just couldn't resist having him actually fight, which he couldn't do as a simple mission contact. I know it creates problems when people go back to their idle animations. (Regarding Rozhenko.)
With the Admiral, I'm very confused as contacts shouldn't be able to just vanish like that. I do know AoE damage can kill them but this makes me suspect there's a bug outside my control.
Oh... And there is a way to get through the whole thing without ground combat, although for the last fight, that requires letting your "friends" do all the fighting. I'm thinking maybe the friendly NPCs there should be an option that only shows up if you read Holloway's logs before entering the holodeck.
You can get off the bridge without combat, though.
I'd like deeper puzzles but I'm a fan, overall, of careful thinking and reading comprehension being things that lower difficulty while really aggressive play will get you less text and more combat.
So you can spend five minutes on dialog boxes or you can spend five minutes fighting and either one will resolve the situation.
And while it's purely indulgent on my part, I had a lot of fun writing the astrophysicist's personal log. I'm curious how many people will see that. I thought about burying it deeper but I spent a couple of days on this mission and I know the bridge dialogs go pretty deep as it is.
Sequels to this are hard, because the mission has two endings. I do have a thought for a remastered version where you have a secondary task in engineering, some more ship combat, and the choice between the two endings is a bit more dramatic.
I have a gimmick in mind where you're on a turbolift and you actually choose which deck to spawn on. The big problem is that turbolifts are a lousy zone in point for groups. If I had a good transporter room set that could be placed on ground maps and a transporter FX object, I might be able to use that.
You saw what I did with the holodeck? Down the road, I want to have missions where you get a choice of multiple destinations like that. So that the entire terrain of the map you wind up on changes based on the choices you make.
The initial idea I had here was to do an episode kinda like TNG's Parallels only have it so that the terrain changes, NPC uniform changes, and the enemies are all optional. Something where you get to pick what "universe" you go to. And every replay could put you in a very different version of the mission. Start subtle, with things like having the player go down a hallway and come back to find a few consoles are different or that an NPC has been replaced. (I have a trick for that but it's not terrible multiplayer friendly without some real cheats to accomplish NPC substitutions.)
At the same time I don't want to become the "alternate universe guy" because I know people get sick of that.
The basic trick you see for the holodeck is something I have more plans for, though. I think you can really mess with a player by having the terrain change around them without a loadscreen.
You open our eyes to a hole new foundry world with your triggers and puzzles.
Your history its really trek, your maps are grate, and your puzzles are fantastic! All of them, like i said, thanks you and i am going to fallow your missions from now on.
After this, we inmediatly went to the Foundry and try to recreate the thing you come up for this mission. It open for us a world of possibilities than we didn't think that was even possible! I big thank for this!
I look foward to try your next mission!
PS: And yes, you have make great "Braga" episode.
"The Enterprise-D was commanded by Ambassador Picard for her entire life, such as it was, and the man was an absolute stickler for details in his"
His what? There's no period there to indicate this is the end of the sentence, and it seemed like it was being cut off. I couldn't figure out what was meant there.
Also, when the first sphere warped in, it seemed pretty close. When it blew up, it also took out the ship I was supposed to be assisting. Afterwards, when I was told to contact the ship, I couldn't progress and had to restart.
One odd inconsistency I found was while in the dialogue prompts, you use 'Hail the <vessel>', but when you actually get a chance to do it, the option is "Talk to <vessel>" which struck me as incongruous. Edit: Nevermind, that line can't be changed. I just checked in my own mission.
(On a side note, when I restarted, I tried it without restoring my shields. The fights were actually easier when nobody had shields...)
I had some odd problems with fights that involved enemies moving through wall and fighting me from where I could not shoot them. Another was that odd bug where the Elite Tactical Drones would stop taking damage for a while, like what happens in the STFs sometimes.
I noticed a few other minor dialogue issues that had more to with the flow, one example is before you beam down, you use the word 'assist' twice in a row, which sounded odd. I don't have the exact line here, but I think it was something like "You and your bridge officers can beam down to assist. The Vulcans will not be able to assist." Changing the second assist to 'help' or something might have sounded better.
As for the story, it felt very Trek, though I'm not sure if you explained what is going to happen with the other ship at the end. Perhaps it was in some dialogue I missed, or maybe in a different ending?
Still, I gave it 5 stars. A lot of the issues I mentioned are due to Foundry or engine limitations, and the ones that aren't were all fairly minor. The way you used the Foundry for your various effects was done well, even though I did run into some odd glitches (like my BOs being stuck running in place in what seemed to be an open hallway).
The Borg have been moved further from the contact in the first part.
I nixed the double use of the word "assist", also, and clarified the ending.
I also moved Holloway further into the holodeck out of concern that AoEs were killing him since someone reported that he doesn't spawn sometimes.
All in all, you did a fantastic job and I'll definitely be keeping an eye on your forthcoming missions!
I also PM'ed you with my review of certain things I enjoyed [but that review's got spoilers which is why I didn't repost it here]
The holordeck portion is amazing in what you did with it, and I didn't see the transformation coming. The Undine "cavalry" was a great stylistic choice. The one nit pick I had was that the pathing and BO's tended to get a bit wonky in the 1st portion of the holodeck section of the mission. I ran into the same bugs as mention above. The run and respawn hit a couple of my BO and in the 1st borg fight in the section, all of my BO ended up behind the holodeck wall. I was able to finish the mission but it was a bit more tricky b/c of the wonky BO behavior.
Still thought this was a great mission and quite excellent.
In the meantime, I have a trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCfSFRa65Eo
The walls bug are understandable once you SPOILERSknow what the final map isSPOILERS. For me the odd part was the holodeck door-room, hallway with the BO running respawn thing. They wouldn't stop doing it then they abruptly just did. Did you figure out why they were doing that? B/c them doing that was just weird. And again, I realize that thing was the engine and not you, so no critique.
I did have a thought, you could hang a lampshade on the BO wonkiness by invoking temporal fluctuations.
Nice trailer--wish one of my review lines has been a bit more memorable and quote worthy.:D How about:
"Cracklingly good chaotic combat and compelling characters, marks this outing from Leviathan99 as a new classic."
I THINK maybe the Borg on the ground being contacts causes them to have geometry that the BOs have trouble passing through but if that doesn't fix things, I'm not sure what will. The BOs would work sometimes and not work others. It adds an element of glitchiness but doesn't necessarily prevent mission completion.
That's my best guess. If I get the option, I think I'd rather just retool this as a "no BOs" mission, add a room between the bridge and deck 11 and treat it as a lite STF.
And I'll add that quote next time I revise the trailer.
- Removed the dead Borg that were creating bridge officer pathing issues on Deck 11. A new dialog has been put into place that will lead the player forward.
- Removed a door that was creating pathing issues. Pathing on Deck 11 should now be significantly more manageable. Walls still do not act as cover but that is a Foundry-level limitation.
- Added green mission information text at the beginning, directing the player to Vulcan.
Spoilers people!
On the "Antichroniton wave" page the numbers go "2.40 MHz, 2.60 MHz, 2.50 MHz, 2.60 MHz" since it goes on normally before and after, I'm assuming one of those buttons doesn't belong.
in the "Lt. Commander Picard" window, you dropped a few letters from "Holo-addiction".
one of the consoles by the holodeck entrance says "Interact" still (2nd from the left.)
Holo-undine and Holo-klingons still have Federation troop names
Holo-undine don't fight at all. Makes them rather worthless.
Spawn point at the end is awfully close to the Enterprise.
The use of the Shakespeare quote in the log was very nice. Definitely the kicker to start you off reading it in that Stewart tone of voice.
"Holodiction" is the Trek canon term for it. http://www.startrek.com/database_article/holodiction
That said, maybe the term needs explaining.
The "Interact" on the consoles happened because a bug prevented me from customizing text. I haven't checked to see if that's resolved itself but I've heard other people claim it fixed itself after logging out of the tools and back so I may be able to fix/replace that text.
The holographic Undine will fight but only if aggroed, unless the devs have taken some kind of anti-exploiting stance that has disabled friendly NPCs in the last few hours.. It really relies on the idea that you haven't aggroed the Borg yet or else you have to lure the Borg back over to the Undine.
I agree about adjusting the names of the holo-Undine and maybe the holo-Klingons as well.
Regarding that last spawn, I did set it that way intentionally, figuring the player had no reason to move and a nice close-up of the ship might be nice. If it causes problems, I can adjust it.
Oh, and thanks for the compliment about the quote.
I did lampshade engineering in one of the dialogs. I'm somewhat of the mind that this mission could maybe use an engineering section (I have a puzzle in mind) and another quick round of space battles to really feel like a proper Trek episode. At the same time, I think the length is probably pretty good and if I do add the extra chapters, it will probably be a mission or two down the line.
The spawn point on the last map wasn't an issue for me, but I was thinking that for someone in a bigger ship it might have been, and for groups it could be a little disorienting as well. I might be wrong about that but it just felt a little odd to be that close.
I believe the Foundry will push you off center to avoid clipping but this probably bears some testing.
The lack of animations certainly aren't preventing them from doing damage but they may not be visibly fighting.
- Fixed consoles which said "Interact" rather than "Access Console" due to an error in the Foundry
- Renamed holograms to more appropriate names
- Renamed one map as "Deck 11"
- Adjusted order of spawns. Rare cases where players were forced into combat prior to the map transition should no longer happen.
Known issues:
- At least one player still reports being unable to find Admiral Holloway. HINT: He's face down on the ground in front of you.. Spawns were adjusted in the event that somehow AoE damage was killing him, perhaps due to engaging the enemy before talking to him. If anyone is unable to find him, please let me know as I've done a number of revisions to make him accessible.
- The first mission objective simply says "Investigate the Anomaly"; I think it would be better if it said "Go to Vulcan and investigate the anomaly"; this way people who forgot where the mission starts won't forget since they can see it in the objectives list.
I've also got a question. lol
- How did you do that "screen goes to static" effect? I've seen that in a few missions and never could figure it out. lol
A few things I loved about the mission [that I didn't see before]
- When asked about the forehead ridges, Viktor replies, "Klingons do not typically discuss this with outsiders", a nice nod to "Trials and Tribble-ations".
- Nice reference to Dr. Soong, too
- Very cool that a Picard is again on board the Enterprise, not to mention his role of Astrophysics officer, which, if I remember right, was his occupation in one alternate reality of "All Good Things".
- Awesome that Picard's son is named after Crusher's husband
- It's also cool to see a Trill of the Dax symbiont serving on board the Enterprise.
- Whether it was intentional or not, I couldn't help think of "He's dead, Jim." when the Admiral died and my Science Officer told me he was dead. lol Though, if you wanted to make it closer to a TOS reference, change "He's dead, Captain." to "He's dead [FirstName]." Then, if the character happens to be named Jim, they'll get an extra kick out of the line.
- I'm not sure if this was intentional, but, near the end, Tucker says "It's good to know you're somewhere out there even if it's beyond the rim of star-light." I got a kick out of that line because, with the original "Star Trek" series theme having lyrics [which were removed], the first line of the song is "Beyond the rim of the star-light". If it was intentional, nice touch!
I am having two remaining issues with the mission.
I have a one star review from somebody who claims he:
- Had bridge officers fall through the map (can't replicate this at all and it seems like an issue with Cryptic's maps if this is happening)
- Had Borg appear at random (Not sure what this means)
- Spoiler: The Undine "didn't work" (Maybe he thought they'd auto-kill the Borg?) They're not only fighting but I am seeing phaser combat animations from them, which some aren't seeing
The serious issue here is that the mission is turning up in searches for <10 minute missions. Now, taking every shortcut I can think of, I can get through the mission in maybe 10-12 minutes on Normal without doing any puzzles, avoiding all traps, avoiding everything optional. That's obviously not anywhere near intended play, which will push this up to 30+ minutes, especially on a first run.